SPJ awards BGA: Exposed Chicago mayor’s use of personal email for public business

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA — The Better Government Association has been selected to receive the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award for its work that led Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to acknowledge he circumvented open records laws by using personal email accounts to conduct public business. Presented by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists’ educational foundation, the award recognizes those…

20 press freedom groups launch U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA — The Society of Professional Journalists joined more than 20 press freedom organizations announcing the launch today of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a new nonpartisan website dedicated to documenting press freedom abuses across the United States. Led by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Freedom of the Press Foundation, the site will serve as a…

UF student wins SPJ Florida College Scholarship

MIAMI, FLORIDA — SPJ Florida is proud to announce the first-place winner of the 2017 SPJ Florida College Scholarship, Andrea Cornejo! A senior at the University of Florida, Cornejo, 21, is studying photojournalism and has worked as a staff photographer and videographer at the Gainesville Sun since October 2016. She also serves as a freelance…

Are there journalism standards the press needs for credibility?

Opinion By the Books By Zach Garner, SPJ student member and freelance journalist If you are reading this you are probably aware that the Society of Professional Journalists has its own Code of Ethics for professional journalists. Other organizations have developed their own, but many start with ours as their foundation. It is a guide…

Meet SPJ Region 3’s international correspondent for SUS

Editor’s Note: Please allow me to introduce SPJ international member Muhammad Ittefaq to SPJ Region 3 members and all journalists in the Region 3 coverage area including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Muhammad will be writing as an international correspondent for SizingUpTheSouth.com on his experiences as a journalists…

Branden Camp: SPJ Georgia spotlight

ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Branden Camp would not say that he has a news specialty. He considers himself a multimedia journalist and worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a freelancer, recording audio, shooting video and taking photos, still photos and doing breaking news interviews. “Most of the time I shoot features stories for the Associated Press,”…