Author: OPC of America

Twitter introduced Twitter for Newsrooms (#TfN), a compelling resource akin to Facebook for Journalists that will help optimize the platform’s reporting potential.

For whatever reason journalists and jail cells aren’t exactly strangers. Here’s a list of some of the more prominent cases of journalists arrested in June.

Ednaldo Figueira, a blogger, politician and owner of the local newspaper O Serrano, was gunned down on June 15 in Serra do Mel, a town in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. He headed the Serra do Mel branch of the Workers Party, the party of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and posted regularly on the Serra do Mel blog.

Journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco and his family were shot with a 9 mm handgun, said Veracruz state prosecutor Jorge Yunis.

Five days after he published an account of abduction and torture by suspected Pakistani intelligence agents, Waqar Kiani, a journalist working for the Guardian, has been badly beaten by uniformed men who said they wished to “make an example” of him.

The BBC is developing an app that will allow its reporters in the field to file video, stills and audio directly into the BBC system from an iPhone or iPad.

“Frontline” Executive Producer David Fanning called for the creation of a Public Journalism Fund with support from foundations, individuals, major donors and public money to hire the best journalists possible.

Unrest in the Middle East has made 2011 a dangerous year for foreign correspondents. The Overseas Press Club is taking measures to improve their safety by reinventing the culture of mentoring, beginning with a new social networking site, Global Parachute. Founded by investigative reporter and former OPC President Allan Dodds Frank, the site, which should go live in six weeks, will be a resource for journalists to share on-the-ground reporting tips specific to various countries, beginning with Yemen, Turkey, Thailand and Cuba. The goal, Frank told Off the Record, is “to replace that great conversation you have in a bar with old hands.

The man suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 has been arrested in Chechnya and is due to be brought to Moscow. Rustam Makhmudov was arrested overnight at his parents’ home, his lawyer told AFP news agency.

OPC Board Member Minky Worden and husband Gordon Crovitz welcomed their baby, Thomas Worden Crovitz, on Tuesday, May 24. The proud parents report that he weighed in at 7 lbs, 14 oz, with a full head of hair and a deeply sweet personality (although he appears so far to be nocturnal).