When Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents detailing surveillance programs to multiple media outlets, it sparked a worldwide debate on privacy, national security and the media’s role in covering it.
The ethical issues surrounding the coverage of Snowden made a perfect subject for the upcoming Oppenheimer Ethics Symposium, said Steve Smith, University of Idaho journalism faculty member and symposium coordinator.
“There was no question that the dominant issue in the latter half of 2013 was Edward Snowden, and before that it was WikiLeaks,” Smith said.
That will be the topic of this year’s keynote speech given by Washington Post staff reporter Paul Farhi at 4 p.m. Friday in the Administration Auditorium.
Smith said a round table discussion featuring a number of media and law professionals including Farhi will follow the keynote speech.
The symposium will continue Saturday with speeches from Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, and Jennifer Sanchez, a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Diversity Committee, at 9:45 a.m. and noon, respectively.
Kenton Bird, director of the UI school of Journalism and Mass Media, said this will be the first year the entire symposium will be located in Moscow instead of Boise. He said in years past, the symposium had been geared toward media professionals, and often covered a wide range of business, legal and media issues.
Smith said the move represents a shift toward a student-oriented symposium that benefits students in their professional development.
“The Oppenheimers wanted to make sure the program really reflected their original vision, which is ethics education for UI students, faculty and the Moscow community,” Smith said.
Smith said Farhi will comment on the federal government’s push to restrict national security reporting. He said Farhi’s extensive coverage on how the media has reported about Snowden made him one of the few people that could address the large and complicated issues surrounding national security reporting.
Smith said LoMonte will give a presentation on scholastic media laws, and new regulations associated with social media.
Bird said the symposium will conclude with an informal brown bag lunch with Sanchez to discuss reporting on race and cultural diversity.
Smith said Saturday’s events will be more interactive and focus on scholastic journalism topics relevant to high school and college reporters.
Bird pointed out the symposium takes place on the first Vandal Friday weekend, and said he hopes many incoming students will attend the event.
“We are hoping to capitalize on the fact that there’s a lot of people on campus that day, and that there is a nationally known speaker on a provocative topic,” Bird said.
Bird said the symposium was created in 2011 through a gift from UI alumni Doug and Arthur Oppenheimer, executives with Boise-based food processor and real estate company Oppenheimer Companies.
Doug Oppenheimer, co-founder of the event, said he and his brother are glad they can help promote ethics education at UI, and create an event that will appeal and benefit UI students.
“We want the speakers and the topics to be something we think the students will be genuinely interested in,” Oppenheimer said. “Hopefully by attending this symposium … it could potentially make a difference in our quest to help people’s perspective.”
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]