PROGRAM - Fighting For Truth: Countering Mis/Disinfo in Our Digital Age

Journalists for Human Rights & the Consulate-General of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Toronto welcome you to the symposium

Fighting For Truth

Countering Misinformation and Disinformation in our Digital Age

March 20, 2023

The Globe & Mail Centre, Toronto

PROGRAM

1 :00PM

Guests Arrival

1:15PM

Welcome by host

Carol Off

Opening Remarks

Harman Idema, Consul-General of Kingdom of Netherlands in Toronto

Virtual presentation

Ilya Krasilshchik , Founder, Helpdesk.media

Panel Discussion

Craig Silverman, Journalist, ProPublica

Kat Eschner, Journalist, TVO.org

Rachel Pulfer , Executive Director, Journalists for Human Rights

2:20PM

Coffee break

2:45PM

Fireside Chat

Sam Andrey & Rachel Pulfer

Virtual presentation

Dr Daniel J. Rogers , Executive Director, The Global Disinformation Index

Keynote Remarks

Terence Samuel , Executive Editor, NPR

Breakout Sessions

All attendees

Closing Remarks

David Walmsley , Editor-in-Chief, The Globe & Mail

5:00PM

Cocktails

HOST Carol Off

An arts reporter and Ottawa correspondent in the ‘80s. International CBC correspondent in the ‘90s and ‘00s. Award-winning documentarian. Award-winning author. And, was the host of As It Happens from 2006 to 2022.

Carol has somehow packed the work of about four careers into one. As a television reporter, she covered the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan, the United States, the former Soviet Union -- and most other places. She has also covered Canadian military missions around the world, including combat operations in Kandahar after 9/11. Her work in the Balkans led her to write the best-selling book The Lion, The Fox, and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Since that book came out in 2000, she’s written three more -- including, most recently, All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others, winner of the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. She’s won a Gemini; two gold medals from the New York Festival of Television; a Gabriel Award; and ACTRA’s John Drainie Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Broadcasting, among other honours.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Terence Samuel

Terry Samuel is Vice President & Executive Editor at NPR. In this role, he is responsible for leading all of NPR’s newsgathering teams.

In 2017 Samuel joined NPR as a deputy managing editor; he was promoted in 2019 to the Managing Editor for News. In that role, he has been involved in every aspect of the daily work across all newsroom teams and has had a hand in guiding the coverage of the biggest stories of the last few years. He also spent time as the interim Executive Producer of Morning Edition during 2021.

From 2011 to 2017, he was a politics editor at The Washington Post, overseeing White House and congressional coverage, and before that he was the congressional Managing Editor at National Journal. Samuel began his career as a writing fellow at The Village Voice in New York and later was a reporter at The Roanoke Times & World News, a national correspondent at both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and chief congressional correspondent at US News & World Report.

A graduate of the City College of New York, Samuel is the author of the 2010 book The Upper House: A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the United States Senate. Some his work as a political columnist was anthologized in Best American Political Writing of 2009.

VIRTUAL SPEAKERS

Ilya Krasilshchik

Ilya Krasilshchik is the former publisher of independent Russian news website Meduza, which operated out of Latvia. He is now based in Berlin, from where he currently runs Helpdesk.media, a media resource and support chat service for those affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Dr Daniel J. Rogers

Dr. Daniel J. Rogers is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Global Disinformation Index, a non-profit focused on catalyzing change within the tech industry to disincentivize the creation and dissemination of disinformation. Prior to founding the GDI, Danny founded and led Terbium Labs, an information security and dark web intelligence startup based in Baltimore, Maryland.

He is a computational physicist with experience supporting Defense and Intelligence Community Cyber Operations, as well as startup experience in the defense, energy, and biotech sectors. Danny is an author and expert in the field of quantum cryptography and has published numerous patents and papers on that and other subjects. Prior to co-founding Terbium Labs, Danny managed a portfolio of physics and sensor research projects at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Math and Physics from Georgetown University, a Doctorate in Chemical Physics from the University of Maryland, is an Adjunct Professor at New York University in their program on Cybercrime and Global Security, and a Security Fellow at the Truman Project on National Security.

SPEAKERS

Craig Silverman

Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist, currently covering voting, platforms, disinformation, and online manipulation for ProPublica. In his previous role as media editor at BuzzFeed News, Craig pioneered coverage of digital disinformation and media manipulation and made the term ‘fake news’ a household phrase. Craig is also the editor of the European Journalism Centre’s Verification Handbook series and has written columns for The Globe And Mail, Toronto Star, and Columbia Journalism Review. He is also the author of the award-winning book, “Mafiaboy”.

Kat Eschner

Kat Eschner is TVO.org’s Affordability Reporter. Her work on science, history, and cities can be found in publications like Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Popular Science, Smithsonian.com, and The Globe and Mail. She has previously worked with Journalists for Human Rights as a trainer for the Misinformation Project.

SPEAKER

Rachel Pulfer

Rachel Pulfer is the Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights, Canada’s leading media development organization. A magazine journalist of 10 years’ standing, Pulfer took over JHR in 2011 and has since worked to expand its scope of operations from one continent to three. This included adapting JHR’s innovative community-led model of media development work overseas to successful programming on Indigenous rights in Canada and moving into the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Working with journalists Michael Cooke, Troy Reeb, Lisa LaFlamme, Karyn Pugliese, Joanne McDonald, Kenny Yum and many, many others, Pulfer pioneered an approach to media partnerships that embedded Canadian journalism experts in training programs with JHR across the media landscape. On her watch, the organization has doubled in scope while winning several regional and national awards acknowledging the impact of JHR programs. Such recognition includes the Michener-Baxter Award for Exceptional Service to Canadian Journalism in 2022, the 2018 Bill Hutton Award for Excellence in Journalism from RTDNA Canada, the 2018 Ontario Heritage Award, the 2013 Canadian Ethnic Media Award for Innovation for the Indigenous Reporters Program, and a 2013 GovernorGeneral’s Award for Services to the People of Ghana.

In June 2022, she was awarded an honorary diploma by Loyalist College for her decade-long leadership in protecting and strengthening journalists all over the world. She is a regular commentator on media development and media freedom, and a member of the Banff Forum.

SPEAKERS

Sam Andrey

Sam Andrey is the Director of Policy & Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Leadership Lab, a think tank dedicated to developing new leaders and solutions to pressing civic challenges. Sam also teaches about public leadership and advocacy at TMU and George Brown College. He serves on the board of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and chairs its research and professional practices committee.

David Walmsley

David Walmsley is the Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief. Under his editorship, The Globe and Mail has won the annual Canadian Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism three times as well as dominated the annual National Newspaper Awards.

David is the deputy president of the World Editors’ Forum of the World Association of Newspapers. He is the creator of World News Day, a global day of education involving 500+ newsrooms on five continents explaining journalism role’s in making the world a better place.

He is the executive producer of two recent documentaries - Nike’s Big Bet, and Shooting War, about conflict photographers.

David is a trustee of the Arthur F Burns Fellowship and sits on the steering committee of the Sir Harold Evans Fellowship for Investigative Journalism. David is the cocreator, with Prof. Anthony Feinstein, of the Toronto Moral Injury Scale for Journalists; the world’s only psychometric scale for detecting moral injury in journalists.

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

We are grateful to the following who have made this event possible and continue to support our mission to protect and strengthen journalism across the world.