Assembly 2009 Program

PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE (subject to change)
Free Speech & Open Government Assembly
Saturday,  October 24, Los Angeles

8:00-9:00
Registration

9:00-10:15am
3 Panels

Tools for news coverage of local government.
Three panels (one in Spanish, a second in Vietnamese, and a third in English) will discuss specific uses of freedom of information laws and other means to obtain government records that can lead to great news stories. Journalists and lawyers explain just what information is available, where you go to get it, and how to overcome obstacles to access.
Panelists: Ricardo Sandoval Palos, Assistant City Editor, The Sacramento Bee; Claudia Nuñez, Reporter, La Opinion; Gary Bostwick, Attorney, Bostwick & Jassy (Spanish).  Anh Do, Vice President & Publisher, Người Việt; Hao-Nhien Vu, Editor Người Việt and Bolsavik.com; Teri T. Pham, Attorney, The Phan Law Group (Vietnamese). Jack Leonard, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, Bert Robinson, Managing Editor, San Jose Mercury News; James Chadwick, Attorney, Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton (English).

10:30-11:45am
Session 1
Panel

How to cover public education at local and state levels without being “spun” by either administrators or the teachers’ union. Among the questions and topics to be explored by experienced journalists and academic experts: Making sense of the (often conflicting) district and school scores under federal (No Child Left Behind) and state (API) standards; How are schools funded and why do some receive more money (per student) than others? Comparing charter schools to “traditional” public schools; Identifying incompetent teachers (as well as excellent ones).
Panelists: Mary Perry, Deputy Director, EdSource; Kathryn Baron, Fellow, Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity & Diversity, UC Berkeley; Mitchell Landsberg,  Staff writer, Los Angeles Times

10:30-11:45am
Session 2
Panel

Panel discussion on practical and legal issues surrounding journalists’ use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Panelists will discuss reporters’ increasing use of social media for both business and pleasure. The business part includes disseminating information as well soliciting  ideas, possible sources and information for news stories. The pleasure part includes postings that may reveal a journalist’s personal biases before a quasi-public audience of online “friends” and “followers.” What are the issues, both legal and journalistic?  How to benefit from these new tools without stepping into a trap?
Panelists: Kelli Sager, attorney, Davis Wright Tremaine; Melissa Griffin, San Francisco-based blogger (thesweetmelissa.com) and political analyst; Karlene Goller, VP & Deputy General Counsel, Los Angeles Times; Henry Fuhrmann, assistant managing editor, Los Angeles Times.

12:00-1:15pm
Panel

Sustaining Journalism in a Digital Age

The shifting financial sands for news media create enormous problems and opportunities for traditional and new-media journalists alike.  The panelists will focus on the possibilities, not the woes.
Panelists: Evan Hansen, Editor-in-Chief, Wired.com; Dan Gillmor, Director, Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University; Geneva Overholser, USC Annenberg School of Journalism; Neil Budde, President and Chief Product Officer, DailyMe.

1:20-1:40pm
Lunch
Lunch starts, continuing into next session

1:45-2:40pm
Talk
Alex Jones, author of the just-released “Losing the News” and Director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

2:45-3:15pm
FAC Awards ceremony.

The recipient of the 2009 Bill Farr Award is Carl Malamud. Government databases want to be free. Carl Malamud is their liberator

Beacon Awards will be presented to:
– Robina Suwol, executive director of California Safe Schools, for use of public records and the democratic process to promote environmental legislation and protect students from experimental pesticides.

– State Sen Leland Yee for legislation to protect the rights of scholastic journalists and to increase transparency in the financial affairs of the University of California, and for efforts to expand the reach of the California Public Records Act.

– Matt Lait and Scott Glover of the Los Angeles Times for dogged reporting that led to the release of a man convicted of murder on questionable evidence and imprisoned for 26 years.

– Austin Heap, with the Censorship Research Center, whose use of technology helped Iranians protesting their presidential election to sidestep government censorship of the internet.

The Darkness Award goes to Principal Rod King and Fallbrook High School for prior restraint of articles produced for the Tomahawk, the school’s award-winning student newspaper.

3:20-4:15pm
Session 1
Talk
Interview with Alexandra Berzon, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for journalism (”public interest” category). Interviewer: James Rainey, media columnist, Los Angeles Times

3:20-4;15PM
Session 2
Panel
How to cover your local police department and District Attorney.  Panel will explore the availability of data and newsgathering strategies for reporting on:  crime rates; rates of “solving” violent crimes; settlements of suits claiming excessive force and other police misconduct; rates of prosecuting persons who are charged and arrested; overtime pay for police;  the “disability pension” scam, and other issues. Panelists: Matt Lait, staff reporter, Los Angeles Times; Duffy Carolan, attorney, Davis Wright Tremaine; Tony Saavedra, investigative reporter, Orange County Register.

4:20-5:20pm
Panel
Demonstration of MAPLight.org. How to use MAPLight’s online research tools and databases to “follow the money” from special interests to your member of Congress and to your state Senate and Assembly members in Sacramento. Presenter: Dan Newman, Executive Director, MAPLight.org

5:30-6:30pm
Reception