Dozens of speakers from around the world have confirmed their
attendance at an international conference on investigative journalism in
Winnipeg, and more are expected in the coming weeks.
Holding Power to Account: Investigative Journalism, Democracy and
Human Rights will be held June 13-15 this year. It is being jointly
organized by the University of Winnipeg and the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation.
Several Pulitzer Prize winners will be in attendance, including Carl
Bernstein. He will deliver a keynote speech on the lessons of Watergate,
the seminal story more than 40 years ago that brought investigative
journalism into the modern era.
The conference will feature a unique blend of working journalists and
academics. Professors of journalism will be coming from coast to coast,
along with teachers from the U.S. Everything from whistleblowing to
hacking to reporting in disaster zones to the ethics of investigative
work will be discussed.
Michael Hudson, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and former Wall Street Journal reporter, will be on hand to discuss international journalistic collaborations.
Linden MacIntyre, Bob McKeown and Diana Swain of the CBC will
describe the evolution of investigative work over the years. Rob Cribb
of the Toronto Star will talk about projects that cross borders, and Steve Buist of the Hamilton Spectator
will discuss health journalism that touches on human rights. Adrienne
Arsenault discusses the dangers inherent in international reporting.
Speakers include journalists from Italy, Austria, Romania, Uganda,
Nepal, Malaysia, Australia and many other places. There will a number of
journalists from Africa in attendance.
There will be special sessions on coverage of Aboriginal and
Indigenous peoples in Canada and the U.S. Advocacy journalism will also
be on the agenda. In a special session, the team from Enquete will
describe how they initiated the current massive investigation into
corruption in the Quebec construction industry.
To register for the conference, and to see a preliminary list of speakers and sessions, visit the conference website.