Join Studio SPJ producer Holly Fisher as she talks with Craig LeMoult at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday, July 25. He won a Sigma Delta Chi Award in the category of Feature Reporting in Radio Journalism for the piece “Assistance in Dying Case Raises Legal and Ethical Questions in Connecticut” for WSHU Public Radio in Fairfield, Conn. Listen to LeMoult’s story at http://spj.org/sdxa11.asp. Call in during the show at 347-857-2441.

Listen to the podcast.

I’ve had the incredibly fun task of interviewing 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award winners for a series of Studio SPJ podcasts. It’s easy to get caught up thinking the journalism industry is fraught with problems – cutback, layoffs, relevancy … and the list goes on. So reviewing these award-winning articles, photos and broadcasts is a refreshing reminder about all that is right with journalism. It’s a reminder of the tremendous responsibility journalists have as storytellers, watchdogs and preservers of history.

Check out some of the recent podcasts:

• Corinne Reilly discusses her piece “A Chance in Hell,” a story of the daily life of U.S. military medics in Afghanistan published in The Virginian-Pilot. Listen online.
• Matt Lakin of the Knoxville News Sentinel talks about his piece, “Pill Sick,” which exposes the world of prescription drug addiction. Listen online.
• Sarah Stuteville discusses “The Return: One Marine’s story of a mission accomplished, but not really over,” which was published in Pacific Northwest Magazine. Listen online.

Stay Tuned:

And coming up at 10 a.m. EST on Thursday, July 19, join Studio SPJ producer Holly Fisher as she talks with Charles Lane. He, along with Naomi Starobin, won a Sigma Delta Chi Award in the category of Public Service in Radio Journalism for the piece “LIPA struggles to provide oversight of storm costs” for WSHU Public Radio in Fairfield, Conn. The SDX Awards Banquet will be July 20, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Tune in online.

Tune in on Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 1 p.m. Eastern when the next broadcast of Studio SPJ will feature a talk with the author of a new book on the assassination of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey.

Our guest will be Thomas Peele, an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group, whose new book is titled, “Killing the Messenger – A Story of Radical Faith, Racism’s Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist.”

Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post, was shot to death on Aug. 2, 2007, as he walked to work. The book tells the story of Bailey’s murder, the history of the Black Muslim movement, and the Oakland cult that his killers belonged to.

Thomas Peele

Peele became one of the lead reporters for the Chauncey Bailey Project – a consortium of news organizations, freelance journalists, educators and students who sought to investigate the shooting.

The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists contributed a $20,000 grant toward the Project.

In June 2011, a jury convicted Yusef Bey IV, former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, on charges that he ordered the murders of Bailey and two other men.

Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about financial problems at the bakery. He was the first journalist murdered over a domestic story in the U.S. since Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was killed in a 1976 car bombing.

Linda Jue, former president of the Northern California Chapter of SPJ will serve as moderator of the 30-minute program.

Studio SPJ is an Internet radio program featuring conversations with journalists.

Listen to this program live or access the archived podcast on BlogTalkRadio. To call in during the program with a question, call 347-857-2441.

Find “Killing the Messenger” on Amazon.com.

More education, training and discussion is needed so journalists – especially new college graduates – have a solid understanding of ethical behavior and potential conflicts of interest. That was part of the discussion in a recent Studio SPJ podcast on The Ethics of Freelancing.

Jeff Cutler, freelance content creator and social media strategist, and SPJ Ethics Committee Chairman Kevin Smith joined Studio SPJ Producer Holly Fisher for a discussion on recent ethical lapses involving freelancers as well as media outlets using freelance journalists.

Listen to the archived podcast.

Some examples of ethical issues:

• Seattle Weekly’s Liysa Northon, Ann Rule Story Lacks Huge Disclosure
• Utah mayor uses fake name to write good news about his city
• Photoshopped-train image leaves cautionary tale for media

Other conversations on this topic:

• Public Radio and the Freelance Journalist
• On the Media: Journalists Holding Signs
• Journalists Are People Too

SPJ’s Code of Ethics is widely accepted as the ethical standard for journalists. To clarify SPJ’s position on certain ethical themes in the code, SPJ’s Ethics Committee is creating a series of position papers to provide better guidance.

More and more journalists are turning to freelancing but does that mean they abandon their ethics simply because they aren’t employed by a single news outlet? There have been some disturbing examples of ethics getting lost in the world of freelancing. Join Studio SPJ host Holly Fisher as she talks with freelancer Jeff Cutler and SPJ’s Ethics Committee Chairman Kevin Smith on the ethics of freelancing. Tune in at 3 p.m. (EST) Monday, Dec. 19. Listen online and call in to join the conversation: 347-857-2441.

It’s been disturbing to watch journalists around the country arrested for simply doing their jobs covering Occupy protests. From New York to California, Occupy protesters have been making headlines and, unfortunately, so have the journalists covering the events. Studio SPJ hosted a discussion on this topic with Paul Fletcher, Virginia Pro SPJ President, and Mickey Osterreicher, counsel for the National Press Photographers Association.

Listen to the archived podcast.

Virginia Pro is one of the local SPJ chapters that issued a letter of objection to arrests in their area. Read more about what happened in Virginia and the pro chapter’s response. SPJ also issued a statement this month calling on city officials to drop charges against journalists covering the protests.

Our discussion during the podcast revealed the general public doesn’t always agree that journalists should be allowed to freely cover these protests. A greater level of education is needed. And that is one way journalists all over can get involved – write about what’s going on and get the word out there.

Other Occupy tidbits:

Josh Stearns, associate program director at Free Press, is maintaining a list of journalists arrested. Also check out his blog, Groundswell.

Read about Nashville Scene reporter Jonathan Meador’s arrest ordeal.

Back in September, the Health Resources and Services Administration removed the Public Use File of the National Practitioners Data Bank. The file was a resource for journalists and the public to gain information about medical practitioners, including doctors. Led by the Association of Health Care Journalists, a coalition of journalism organizations publicly objected to the removal. HRSA has restored the file to public view … BUT … there is a heavy caveat to the data being brought back. Users of the data set must agree not to repost or share the data on other websites, and cannot use it to identify an entity or individual (such as a doctor) by name.

We gathered some key players in this discussion together to talk about the far-reaching ramifications of public records with strings. Weighing in on this discussion are SPJ President John Ensslin, AHCJ President Charles Ornstein and Kansas City Star reporter Alan Bavley, who was threatened with a fine if his newspaper published a story that used confidential information from the data bank. The Kansas City Star chose to publish the information.

Listen to the Nov. 13 episode of Studio SPJ.

More resources on this topic:

SPJ: Public data bank file restored, but with major restrictions

SPJ: National Practitioner Data Bank restricted: How you can help

On the Media: The loss of a valuable journalistic tool

Association of Health Care Journalists and check out their timeline and resources on this subject