Reporters discuss future of religion journalism at Yale panel

A group of leading religion journalists from around the world will meet at Yale Divinity School (YDS) on Thursday, Nov. 15, to discuss the future of faith reporting in the news media.

The free and public panel discussion, titled “Faith Across Oceans: Leading International Journalists Talk About the Religion Beat,” will take place at the Divinity School’s Niebuhr Hall, 409 Prospect St., 4–5:30 p.m.

The discussion will be webcast live.

Among the panelists are María-Paz López, senior religion writer of La Vanguardia, a Spanish national daily based in Barcelona, and Pedro Brieger, an Argentinian journalist and sociologist whose books include “Holy War or Political Struggle?” and “What is Al Qaeda?”  

Also participating on the panel will be David Briggs, a YDS alumnus and former chief religion writer for the Associated Press, and Nayan Chanda, editor of YaleGlobal Online and former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly.

Moderating the discussion will be Sallama Shaker, visiting professor of Middle East and Islamic studies at Yale.

Following the presentation there will be a reception with the panelists and other journalists in attendance, including: Rachael Kohn, producer and presenter of “The Spirit of Things” on ABC Radio National in Australia; Hani Al Hazimeh, a reporter at The Jordan Times, Jordan’s only political English-language daily newspaper; and Yazeed Kamaldien, a freelance journalist and photographer in Cape Town, South Africa.

The visiting journalists are members of the steering committee of the recently formed International Association of Religion Journalists, of which Briggs is the executive director.