Last month, a team of six staff from the Civic Initiative (a business group of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute) were in Islamabad. They held a three-day follow-up conference for alumni from recent cohorts of the Study of the U.S. Institutes Comparative Public Policymaking program that has been held annually by the Civic Initiative since 2010. The SUSI program is funded by the US Department of State Education and Cultural Affairs Office.
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AIPS-Sponsored Participants Attended a Fake News Conference
Jill Filipovic, Ty McCormick and Lauren Bohn conducted a series of workshops and lectures/discussions on a variety of topics related to journalism in conjunction with a conference on media in Pakistan, “Fake News and Facts in our Region” organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) in Islamabad.
Filipovic, McCormick, and Bohn’s workshops and lectures, held in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, brought together journalists, students and stakeholders in Pakistan, opening lines of engagement and information with the U.S. journalists and reached nearly 500 people. Concepts such as the right to free speech, free press, the free exercise of religion, and women’s rights were discussed in depth, as were misconceptions about Pakistan and local frustrations with American journalistic coverage. The American journalists were educated about the Pakistani press, including the robust journalistic traditions and ongoing challenges (financial, political and social) that Pakistani journalists face. The Pakistani journalists participated in the discussions and workshops aimed at bringing valuable skills and perspectives on issues including responsible sourcing, free speech, and the conscientious coverage of sensitive issues to increase the caliber of journalistic work in Pakistan. It is expected that this information will be passed on to other journalists in the country, furthering the reach of the program.
Scholar Bios
Jill Filipovic is a lawyer and journalist. She is a contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, a weekly columnist at CNN, and a New America Future of War Fellow, where she is working on a year-long reporting project about abortion access in conflict zones.
Ty McCormick is the deputy web editor at Foreign Affairs, the magazine published by the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the Africa editor of Foreign Policy magazine, where he edited and reported award-winning stories on migration, conflict and the UN.
Lauren Bohn is an independent journalist, editor, and social entrepreneur based in Chicago and Istanbul. Formerly, she was The GroundTruth Project’s inaugural Middle East correspondent, editor-at-large, and a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. She is the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted, a start-up incubator and fellowship program dedicated to changing the ratio and getting more women miked and bylined.
For a complete overview of the program, find the final report here.