Subject: GROUNDBREAKING MEDIA CONGRESS ATTRACTS NEWSMAKERS
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:20:26 -0500

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PRESS RELEASE
Distributed by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
for the Institute for Alternative Journalism
Contact:  Hunter Cutting (415)885-0563
               Robert Bray (415)552-6448
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[CORRECTION:  To apply for press credentials to this event, contact Hunter
Cutting at (415)885-0563.  The number was incorrectly reported in a previous
release.]

GROUNDBREAKING MEDIA CONGRESS ATTRACTS NEWSMAKERS FROM GAY, LESBIAN AND
BISEXUAL COMMUNITIES

MEDIA MERGERS, CENSORSHIP, ALTERNATIVE PRESS ADDRESSED

San Francisco...An unprecedented national congress of leading journalists,
activists and media makers, including many from the gay, lesbian and bisexual
community, will convene this month to respond to the recent tidal wave of
media mergers, telecommunications censorship and other critical issues
affecting access to information and freedom of the press. 

    The Media & Democracy Congress, coordinated by the Institute for
Alternative Journalism (IAJ), will be held from February 29-March 3 in San
Francisco at the Miyako Hotel.  The event is expected to attract a "who's
who" of progressive media organizations, pundits and activists.

    Among those slated to address the Congress in workshops and panels are
such gay, lesbian and bisexual notables as Urvashi Vaid, author and former
executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF);
Suzanne Pharr, 
long-time lesbian activist with The Women's Project; David Mendoza, executive
director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression; Lidia Szajko,
Dyke TV producer; Robert Bray, NGLTF media director and Congress planning
committee 
member; Roy Aarons, founder and president of the National Lesbian and Gay
Journalists Association (NLGJA), along with NLGJA members Cesar Chavez,
WBBM-TV/Chicago, and Karen-Louise Boothe, Minnesota Public Radio; Scot
Nakagawa, NGLTF Field Organizing Project director; Sandy Nelson, former
reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune; Catherine Saalfield, video and film
maker, youth advocate for the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York, and NGLTF
board member; Al Kielwasser, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/San
Francisco Bay Area (GLAAD); Kim Deterline, director, "We Interrupt This
Message;" Jessea Greenman, organizer, Public Education Regarding Sexual
Orientation Nationally (P.E.R.S.O.N.) and 
former co-chair, GLAAD/SF; Laura Flanders, executive producer, Fairness and
Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) "Counterspin;" Andrea Lewis, editor, Third Force
Magazine; David Boyer, Stop AIDS Project; Sandi DuBowski, Planned Parenthood
Federation; representatives of Digital Queers; and many others.

    More than 32 organizations, representing a broad range of progressive
issues, are cosponsoring the event.  In addition, nationally known authors
and commentators such as Susan Faludi, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower,
Frank Rich and others will appear.

    Due to an overwhelming response, general registration to the Congress is
closed.  However, those interested in obtaining information about the results
of the Congress, including a copy of the "Information Bill of Rights," and
audio and videotapes, should contact IAJ at (415)284-1419.   For full
reports, visit 
the Congress' web site at http://www.alternet.org/an/Congress.html.
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