Join SPJ National President J. Alex Tarquinio for a Q&A with journalist Bryan Carmody, whose home and newsroom were raided by San Francisco Police

When: 6 p.m. mixer, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. program on Tuesday, Aug. 13

Where: Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in San Francisco, 44 Montgomery St.

Get there: Medill’s San Francisco campus is located near the Montgomery Street BART Station and several Muni lines, including the F-Market & Wharves Streetcar, J, K, L, M, N and T trains, as well as the 30, 38, 45, 8 and 7 bus routes.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spj-president-interviews-bryan-carmody-about-sfpd-raid-tickets-68219401065

Journalists and members of the public are invited to join the Society of Professional Journalists President J. Alex Tarquinio for an on-stage Q&A with journalist Bryan Carmody and first amendment attorney Tom Burke on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at the Medill School of Journalism in downtown San Francisco.

The event will start with a mixer at 6 p.m., with the Q&A running from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This event is open to the public. RSVPs are required. Refreshments will be served.

Carmody’s home and newsroom were raided by San Francisco police and the FBI in April. Seeking to uncover Carmody’s confidential source who allegedly leaked a police report around the death of San Francisco’s public defender, police came to Carmody’s door with a sledge hammer, kept him in handcuffs and confiscated tens of thousands of dollars in video reporting equipment and computers.

Press freedom advocates lambasted San Francisco government for the allegedly illegal act, and described it as an obvious violation of California’s Shield Law, which enshrines journalist protections against warrant search and seizure.

Tarquinio will moderate the discussion about the raid and ongoing legal fight with Burke and Carmody days before they are due back in court. She will begin the evening by updating SPJ members and guests about the Society’s other recent advocacy efforts, including an event to highlight the threat of disinformation to elections, and will be available during the mixer and after the panel to discuss the organization with SPJ members.

The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to defending press freedoms, and throughout Carmody’s case, the SPJ NorCal chapter has aggressively pursued California Shield Law protections for Bryan Carmody.

SPJ NorCal — in collaboration with the First Amendment Coalition and Reporters Committee for Freedom of The Press, and represented by Duffy Carolan of Jassy Vick Carolan and SPJ NorCal Freedom of Information Committee Co-Chair Aaron Field — filed a motion to unseal the materials that San Francisco police presented in court to obtain search warrants against Carmody.

SPJ NorCal also joined a court brief supporting Carmody’s motion to quash the search warrants. The motion to unseal has already unearthed important information , and the motion to quash has been granted as to four out of the five warrants. Both motions are scheduled to be heard as to the fifth warrant on August 16.

Watch for further updates from SPJ NorCal later this month after the final warrant decision arrives.

For more information: Email the SPJ NorCal Board at spjnorcal@gmail.com

Join SPJ NorCal and help us continue our important work: https://spjnorcal.org/join-spj-norcal/

Donate to SPJ NorCal to help us defend press freedoms and educate the next generation of journalists: https://spjnorcal.org/donate/

About J. Alex Taquinio: As the national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, J. Alex Tarquinio has emphasized press freedom advocacy. In addition to issuing numerous statements on press freedom violations, she organized a nonprofit summit focused on the threat of disinformation to elections in April and spoke at the United Nations Headquarters on World Press Freedom Day, an annual event every May 3. She also serves as a board member of the SPJ Foundation, which funds the Society’s educational programming.

Tarquinio has two decades of experience as a writer and editor. She has written about business and politics in the United States, Europe and Asia. Most recently, she covered the negotiations leading up to the first summit between the United States and North Korea in articles for Politico Magazine and the New York Post. Previously, she worked at Dow Jones as a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money Magazine. Her editing stints included Time Inc., the Real Deal magazine and Forbes.com. She received a German Marshall Fund fellowship for a reporting residency in the divided island nation of Cyprus. As a freelance writer, her byline has appeared in The New York Times (which published nearly 200 of her articles), The International Herald Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, Barron’s and Reader’s Digest, among others.

A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she speaks French. She lives in New York City with her husband, Frank.

About Thomas Burke: Tom Burke defends speech and content across all mediums – representing internet companies; networks; studios; book, magazine and news publishers; and authors, journalists, photographers, documentary filmmakers, and environmental groups.

With nearly 30 years of trial and appellate experience in California’s state and federal courts, Tom’s practice covers the full spectrum of content liability issues including First Amendment matters and the defense of libel, privacy, right of publicity, copyright, trademark, and false advertising claims. A veteran newsroom lawyer, Tom regularly provides prepublication counseling and vets books and scripts.

He defends journalists facing subpoenas for unpublished information and confidential sources. He also regularly litigates high-profile state and federal public records lawsuits. Tom is the author of “Anti-SLAPP Litigation” (The Rutter Group 2013-present) and since 2002, teaches media law at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

About Bryan Carmody: As founder of the Bay Area’s premier television news service, North Bay Television News, Bryan has decades of experience shooting, editing and reporting news. His content has appeared on national networks including Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, Telemundo and Univision, as well as all Bay Area stations. He has provided exclusive content of international stories, including the San Bruno explosion in 2010 and the fatal tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo in 2007.

In addition to television news, Bryan serves as a key player in the USO Bay Area’s marketing and communications team, managing media coverage in various capacities since 2011. At the USO, Bryan has facilitated coverage of dozens of news stories on television, online and in print, raising the profile of the nonprofit that is dedicated to improving the lives of U.S. service members around the world and their families. Bryan also started the USO Bay Area’s social media profiles.

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