Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

• The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue , the world’s preeminent nonprofit trusted technology accelerator, announced today that its CEO, Michelle Giuda , has been unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the newly formed bipartisan International Broadcasting Advisory Board (IBAB) of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231215097475/en/
  Michelle Giuda, CEO Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, unanimously confirmed by U.S. Senate to serve on bipartisan board to U.S. Agency for Global Media (Photo: Business Wire)
  “I am deeply honored to join the USAGM’s International Broadcasting Advisory Board,” said Giuda.
• Prior to her role as the CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, Giuda was Executive Vice President of Geopolitical Strategy & Risk at global communications firm Weber Shandwick.
• in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was an NCAA Champion and Team Captain of the UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Team.

• WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement by Eileen O'Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, on new charges brought by the Russian government against Alsu Kurmasheva of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
• Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists.
• The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged, global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with the skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire a more representative democracy.
• The NPCJI is the nonprofit affiliate of the National Press Club.

• WASHINGTON, Nov. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement from Eileen O'Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, on Russia's detention of Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
• "We urge the U.S. government to immediately designate Alsu Kurmasheva's imprisonment as an unlawful and wrongful detention.
• The Biden administration is taking too long to make this important designation.
• Secretary Antony Blinken and officials at the State Department should act swiftly to ensure Alsu is freed from her unjust detention.

• In a conflict like the war in Ukraine, many journalists risk their lives to report the truth and reveal war crimes committed by both sides.
• But when journalists themselves are targeted, these war crimes almost always go unpunished.
• At least 15 media workers have been killed in Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale war in February 2022.
• Threatening, attacking, disappearing and murdering journalists is not a new tactic of war in general – and certainly not unknown in Russia.

A dangerous (but vital) occupation

• In both instances, the media workers were able to survive the attacks and live to tell us the story.
• The same day, Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin, covering the war for Reuters, and his bodyguard Oleksiy Chernyshov were killed.
• He and his colleague Corrado Zunino were targeted by snipers, despite wearing vests clearly identifying them as press.

Heat of battle or coldblooded murder?

• Journalists are protected as civilians under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which Russia ratified in 1954.
• They are also considered civilians, but have the additional protection of being treated as prisoners of war if captured (from the third Geneva Convention).
• How many killings are in the heat of battle and how many are state-sanctioned?
• Kelly Bjorklund is a senior writer and editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.