Maxwell, Newhouse schools to co-host international journalists as part of U.S. Department of State program for third consecutive year

Maxwell, Newhouse schools to co-host international journalists as part of U.S. Department of State program for third consecutive year October 01, 2008Jaime Winne Alvarezjlwinne@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will jointly host a delegation of 12 journalists from northern Africa from Oct. 9-15 as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Edward R. Murrow Program for International Journalists. This is the third consecutive year that SU has been selected by the State Department to host a group of Murrow journalists, who will travel to the United States to learn about the rights and responsibilities of a free press in a democracy and about the social, economic and political structures of the nation.

SU is one of 10 host institutions for the total of 160 visiting journalists. The 12 journalists coming to Syracuse represent Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. They include radio, television and print reporters.

SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor will welcome the international journalists to SU on Oct. 9. Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein and Newhouse School Dean Lorraine Branham will host their week-long stay. While here, the journalists will participate in interactive seminars and sessions with faculty, professional journalists and others. In hosting the delegation of journalists, SU is also working with the International Center of Syracuse to ensure the journalists experience the local community as well as the campus.

“The Murrow Program has quickly become one of my office’s most prestigious public diplomacy programs because of the quality of the participants and the quality of the universities, like Syracuse,” says Brad Minnick, director of the Office of International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Department of State. “This is now the Department of State’s flagship exchange program to orient foreign journalists to American journalistic practices and practitioners.”

In addition to SU, the nine other universities chosen to participate in the 2008 Edward R. Murrow Program are the University of Maryland, the University of Southern California, the University of Oklahoma, the University of North Carolina, the University of Tennessee, the University of Minnesota, Texas Christian University, Marquette University and Jackson State University.