FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org
Scott Higham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post, will be a featured speaker at the ninth annual New England First Amendment Institute.
The New England First Amendment Coalition offers the three-day investigative journalism program each year at no cost to 25 New England journalists. The institute is from Sept. 22-24 at Northeastern University in Boston.
The institute provides editors and reporters with the support and training necessary to become accomplished investigative journalists, well versed in the freedom of information laws that govern today’s difficult reporting landscape. Many exceptional, award-winning journalists and First Amendment attorneys volunteer as faculty each year.
Casey Frank of the Miami Herald and Maria Hiaasen, former journalist and widow of Capital Gazette shooting victim Rob Hiaasen, will also be featured.
Other faculty this year include Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post; Jennifer Levitz of The Wall Street Journal; Lisa Yanick Litwiller of Hearst Connecticut Media; Cindy Galli of ABC News; Matt Kauffman, formerly of the Hartford Courant; Mike Beaudet of WCVB-Boston and Northeastern University; Amanda Milkovits of The Boston Globe; and Tim White of WPRI-Providence.
Since joining The Post in 2000, Higham has examined the deaths of foster children, waste and fraud in Homeland Security contracts, the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, and conflicts of interest on Capitol Hill. He has also investigated the offshore banking industry; allegations of misconduct against Bill Cosby, Brian Williams and Roger Ailes; and fraudulent and wasteful spending in Iraq and Afghanistan by a Washington-based nonprofit.
In addition, he examined fatal police shootings and the civil consequences for families and municipalities, the hunt for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, Marco Rubio and his family connection to a cocaine kingpin, the rise of the Islamic State and its use of U.S. social media, and the murder of Chandra Levy, among many other projects.
He is currently one of the lead reporters on an investigation into the drug industry and the distribution of opioid pills.
This year’s institute is made possible by the generosity of Northeastern University, the Academy of New England Journalists and the Boston University College of Communication.
Other supporters of NEFAC this year include Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Barr Foundation, The Boston Globe and WBUR-Boston.
More information about NEFAI 2019, including a tentative schedule, can be read here. Information on previous institutes can be found here.
NEFAC was formed in 2006 to advance and protect the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment, including the principle of the public’s right to know. We’re a broad-based organization of people who believe in the power of an informed democratic society. Our members include lawyers, journalists, historians, academics and private citizens.
Our coalition is funded through contributions made by those who value the First Amendment and who strive to keep government accountable. Please make a donation here.
Major Supporters of NEFAC include Hearst Connecticut Media Group, the Barr Foundation, The Providence Journal Charitable Legacy Fund, The Boston Globe, WBUR and Boston University.