Posts by Connecticut SPJ

Freelance Journalism Guide Available For Download

The national SPJ Freelance Committee has published a 77-page digital guide to help freelancers on topics from bookkeeping to branding.

The guide is free to download for all SPJ members. Click here to download the guide, called “On Your Own: A Guide to Freelance Journalism.”

It will also be sold as an e-book for a nominal fee, with the proceeds going toward committee programming.

SPJ’s Freelance Committee plans to update the guide on a regular basis and include more personal experiences from freelancers to reflect changes and trends in the marketplace.

SPJ also encourages freelance writers and editors not yet affiliated with the society to join and add their input to the guide.

Comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome and should be made to David Sheets, the guide’s editor, by email at dksheets@gmail.com, or through Twitter at @DKSheets or LinkedIn.

Federal Shield Law Discussed at Connecticut ACLU Forum

By Ricky Campbell

The next step federal lawmakers must take to ensure full and free-flowing information is to enact a national shield law, according to the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The group hosted a panel discussion on the topic recently, with Keith R. Johnson, a former foreign correspondent for Time and senior editor of Fortune, and John Miller, a former writer for NBC Nightly News and the Today show.

Miller recognized the importance of shield laws when Daniel and Philip Berrigan were placed on the FBI’s Top-10 Most Wanted List in 1968 for their elevated celebrity during Vietnam War protests.

The two brothers were interviewed repeatedly by news outlets, which refused to turn them in to the federal government.

Although Miller, who was a former writer for NBC Nightly News, never faced a situation where he needed to protect confidential sources, he pointed to the importance of confidentiality throughout his days in New York.

Johnson told a story of a reporter who was threatened with jail time when Judy Garland sued the author’s publication for libel. According to Johnson, the writer , Marie Torre, served 10 days behind bars for writing a story that called Garland “fat.”

Connecticut has its own form of shield law, protecting reporters who are using confidential sources. But there has yet to be a federal guideline issued. In 2007, Congress attempted a bill, but it never passed.

Freelancers wanted:

The Associated Press is seeking reliable people to call in presidential election results Nov. 6 in Ansonia, Bethel, Columbia, Naugatuck, Southbury and possibly other Connecticut towns.

For more information, contact Stringer Coordinator Kate Farrish at katefarrish@live.com.

Republican-American Receives National Sunshine Award

Society of Professional Journalists press release

The Waterbury Republican-American has received the Sunshine Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ board of directors and Freedom of Information Committee honor people or organizations each year for their notable contributions to open government.

Read more →

Connecticut journalist dies in house fire

Connecticut journalist Joel P. Kleinman died in a house fire in Meriden on Aug. 18. He was 64.

Kleinman was the managing editor of QST, the monthly magazine of the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio in the United States. The organization is headquartered in Newington, Conn.

Click here to read more about Kleinman’s work at QST in a press release on the ARRL website.

More details about the fire can be found at the Hartford Courant and the Meriden Record Journal websites as well.

FOI panel seeks to appeal limit on arrest information

The following article originally appeared in the Journal Inquirer. 

By Alex Wood
Journal Inquirer
Saturday-Sunday, August 11, 12, 2012

The state Freedom of Information Commission voted this week to ask the state Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a recent Appellate Court decision that would sharply reduce the amount of information about criminal arrests that can be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Colleen M. Murphy, the FOI Commission’s executive director and general counsel, said the commission voted 7-0 to ask the Supreme Court for certification to appeal the decision. The state’s top court isn’t required to allow the appeal.

The Appellate Court decision arose from a request by a New Haven Register reporter for a state police report on a serious assault that occurred in a vehicle on Route 8 in Derby in March 2008. After the defendant pleaded guilty in March 2010, the state police gave the Register the documents at issue.

But the two sides and the Superior Court judge who originally heard the appeal, Henry S. Cohn, agreed that the case, although moot, could be decided because a similar issue might arise in the future.

The FOI Act contains detailed provisions as to which records police are, and are not, required to release in response to requests from members of the public or the press.

In 1983, in response to concerns by the media that some police departments were restricting release of traditional police “blotter” information, the legislature adopted an additional provision requiring release of that information. The provision required release of the name and address of the person arrested; the date, time, and place of the arrest; and the charge.

In a 1993 case, in which the Journal Inquirer had sought a Windsor Locks arrest report, the state Supreme Court interpreted the 1983 amendment as limiting the information that had to be disclosed about an arrest. It held that the 1983 amendment overrode more general provisions of the law calling for disclosure of additional information.

The next year, the legislature changed the arrest-information provision to require that, in addition to the basic “blotter” information, police departments must disclose a report or news release on each arrest. The 1994 amendment also specified that any information beyond the basic “blotter” information was to be governed by the list of exemptions from disclosure that had always been part of the law.

The Freedom of Information Commission and some judges have interpreted the 1994 amendment as essentially overruling the Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in the Windsor Locks case.

But the recent Appellate Court decision held that the 1993 decision is still a binding legal precedent — and that the provision on disclosure of arrest information still limits what has to be released.

The wording in that provision referring to the general list of exemptions merely allows certain information to be removed from the report or news release that now has to be released along with the blotter information, the court ruled.

Click here for the article online.

CTSPJ Concludes Independent Review

Dear Connecticut SPJ members,

On June 29, we informed you the Connecticut SPJ board had launched an independent investigation into two entries in the 2011 Connecticut SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards contest, after it came to light the entrant, Paresh Jha, had fabricated sources in 25 articles for the New Canaan News.

Jha won a third place award for feature writing and a first place award for in-depth reporting.

Our independent review, conducted by media lawyer and Syracuse professor Roy Gutterman, confirmed what Hearst officials originally told us about the entries: Sources in the in-depth reporting entry had been fabricated. And, all sources included in the feature writing entry were legitimate.

Those confirmations came through Gutterman’s review of all sources, as well as an interview with Paresh Jha, himself, about the entries.

Click here to download a PDF version of the final report.

After careful deliberation and additional questions to Gutterman about his review, the CTSPJ Board of Directors on July 29 voted to revoke Jha’s first place award for the in-depth reporting entry.

The third-place award for the feature writing entry will stand, as our investigation found no evidence of deception.

Connecticut SPJ is dedicated to preserving the integrity of our long-time contest, and to ensuring the continued confidence of journalists in our future contests.

We condemn all unethical practices and continue to applaud all media organizations for their swift action on ridding the industry of any violators.

Regards,

Jodie Mozdzer, CTSPJ President

Cindy Simoneau, CTSPJ Immediate Past President

WSHU Wins Two National Reporting Awards

WSHU Public Radio, based in Fairfield, will receive two Sigma Delta Chi awards from the national Society of Professional Journalists at a banquet on July 20.

The awards are:

Public Service in Radio Journalism (101+ Market)
Charles Lane and Naomi Starobin
LIPA struggles to provide oversight of storm costs

Feature Reporting (101+ Market)
Craig LeMoult and Naomi Starobin
Assistance in dying case raises legal and ethical questions in Connecticut

More than 1,700 entries across the country were submitted to the awards this year in the categories of print, radio, television and online.

The Sigma Delta Chi Awards Banquet will be held July 20, 2012 in Washington D.C.

For more information about the banquet and to see all other award winners, click here.

CCFOI Honors Tom Appleby, Others For Dedication To Open Government

by James Smith, CCFOI president

CCFOI Legislative Chair G. Claude Albert presents the Stephen A. Collins Award to Tom Appleby, general manager and news director of News Connecticut 12.

The Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information has bestowed its annual Stephen A. Collins Award on Tom Appleby, general manager and news director of News 12 Connecticut in Norwalk.

CCFOI also awarded its Champion of Open Government Award to Sherman London, a member of the state Freedom of Information Commission and retired editorial page editor of the Waterbury Republican-American.

CCFOI’s Bice Clemow Award, given to public officials for outstanding leadership in “promoting open and accountable government,” went to six public officials, including four who helped lead a broad coalition which successfully kept municipal records, including grand lists and voting lists, from having home addresses redacted for so-called “protected classes” of residents.

Under state law certain “protected” state officials and workers — judges, prosecutors, prison guards and others – can remove their home addresses from the public portions of their sate personnel files. A state Supreme Court decision expanded that protection to municipal records. The town clerk’s coalition, of which CCFOI was a member, helped get new legislation passed keeping the most critical local records intact and open, as they have been for three hundred years.

CCFOI President James H. Smith (center) presents the Bice Clemow Award to, L-R: Essie Labrot, West Hartford Town Clerk; Joyce P. Mascena, Glastonbury Town Clerk; Antoniette “Chick” Spinelli, Waterbury Town Clerk; and Patrick Alair, Deputy Corporation Counsel of West Hartford.

The municipal award winners were: Joyce Mascena, Glastonbury town clerk and president of the Connecticut Town Clerk’s Association; Antoinette “Chick” Spinelli, Waterbury town clerk and chair of the association’s Legislative Committee; Essie Labrot, West Hartford town clerk; and Patrick Alair, West Hartford deputy corporation counsel.

Also receiving Clemow awards were Lisa Rein Siegel, the state Freedom of Information Commission lawyer who argued the redacted addresses case before the state Supreme Court; and Mary E. Schwind, the managing director and associate general counsel of the commission. The Clemow award is named for the late, longtime editor and publisher of the West Hartford News.

The Collins award is given in the name of the longtime editorial director of the News-Times in Danbury, who, along with Clemow and others, worked closely with the late Gov. Ella T. Grasso to pass the state Freedom of Information Act in 1975.

Appleby, a member of SPJ since 1985, was co-chair (along with then-chief state criminal court Judge Patrick Clifford), of a committee that developed guidelines that now allow still and video cameras in state courtrooms. Appleby received the award “for his many contributions to the cause of open and accountable government and a free and vigorous press.”

Retired FOIC general counsel Mitch Pearlman presents the Champion of Open Government Award to FOI Commissioner Sherman London.

London, who is 90 and, after 16 years, the longest serving commissioner on the state Freedom of Information Commission, received the Champion award “In recognition of his extraordinary service to the people of the state of Connecticut in preserving, defending and enhancing access to government information essential to a healthy and vibrant democracy.”

The awards were presented at CCFOI’s annual lunch at the Hartford Club June 20.

CCFOI is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1955 to advocate for open and accountable government.

All photos are courtesy of CCFOI.

SPJ President Hosts Town Hall Meeting

Ensslin

SPJ President John Ensslin hosted a virtual town hall meeting with members in Region 1 on Saturday, June 30.

It was one of several meetings Ensslin has hosted across the country. Click here for more details.

Ensslin on Saturday updated the participants on the conference call about SPJ initiatives and issues. The following topics came up during the hour-long conversation:

• SPJ is proposing a measure to allow members to pay their annual dues with a credit card on a monthly payment plan, to help members be able to continue to afford the dues.

• SPJ’s national board is considering allowing institutional memberships and international members to join the organization.

• The national board is reviewing oversight policies of local chapter finances, after a situation in Oklahoma this year where a local SPJ treasurer and Region 8 director resigned amid allegations he stole money from the Oklahoma Pro chapter’s bank account. Click here to read a statement from national on the situation:

• The location of the Region 1 convention for 2013 is still being decided. Region 1 members have suggested Boston as a possible location, but now Region 1 members are leaning toward wanting to host the convention in New Jersey this year.

• All SPJ members will have a chance to vote in national elections for the first time in September. Members don’t need to be at the national convention in Florida in order to vote. Click here to view the online voting central, where you can get information on all the candidates and how to vote.

• Rebecca Baker, the so-far lone candidate for Region 1 director, spoke about her background and plans for the position, if elected at the national convention in September. Baker has been an SPJ member since 2000, and has worked in three Region 1 states: Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. She is the current past-president for New York’s Deadline Club. “I would definitely be available to help various chapters in the region with whatever they would need,” Baker said.