The sixth edition of the International Journalism Festival (IJF) in Italy has just started. For five days, from April 25 to 29, the city of Perugia will become “the capital of journalism” hosting journalists, bloggers and media organizations from all over the world, with over 200 volunteers and thousands of guests coming from every corner of Italy and from abroad.

More than 500 speakers, 250 accredited journalists, 200 free entry events, not to mention workshops, exhibitions, documentaries, awards;  the International Journalism Festival is a goldmine for enthusiasts of media and communications, and for those interested in and concerned about the future of journalism, freedom of speech and the right to information.

The issues to be discussed are plentiful, from journalism ethics to journalist activism, from civic media and citizen journalism to democracy, from the use of mobile phones and videocameras for reporting to economic sustainability, from hacking to social networking, and much more. A rich and varied program based on participation, discussion, free exchange of ideas, confrontation between experts and citizens, professionals and students, researchers and users.

The International Journalism Festival is a five day journey into the world of media and journalism, a look into the mass media of tomorrow, strategies, tools, and platforms of reporting and into the endless possibilities of civic engagement offered by new media and social networks.

Among the guests of the IJF 2012 are:

• Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson
• Aron Pilhofer, New York Times
• Robert Philomé, France 24
• Simon Rogers, The Guardian
• Dan Nguyen, Propublica
• David Aaronovitch, The Times
• Adam Baker, Blottr
• Tony Curzon Price, openDemocracy.net
• Clive Edwards, BBC
• Ibrahim Hamdan, Al Jazeera
• Hada Messia, CNN
• Riccardo Noury, Amnesty International Italy
• Mohamed Ali Zakaria, photo-reporter
• Wolfgang Blau, Zeit Online
•  Ali al-Bouazizi, political activist
•  Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks
• Martin Dawes,  UNICEF
• Herman Burt, Storify & Hacks/Hackers,
• Mark Johnson, The Economist
• Per Mikael Jensen, Metro International

For the complete list of speakers please visit http://www.journalismfestival.com/speaker-list/2012.

Founded in 2006 by Arianna Ciccone and Christopher Potter with the aim “to set up an event which would break the mould” and to create “an opportunity for you to engage with leading journalists from all over the world”, the IJF is an informal and accessible festival open to everybody completely free of charge. A chance to discuss a wide range of current interest topics, to aggregate and involve a broad variety of media organizations, journalists, aspiring journalists, experts, and all those curious persons interested in media and its role in society.

Located right in the heart of Italy, Perugia is a beautiful medieval city of Etruscan origins and an artistic center situated on a hilltop, with a reputation for fine cuisine, beautiful landscapes and rich history. The Umbria’s capital is also famous for its universities, University of Perugia and University of Foreigners, which host more than 40,000 students every year. The perfect perfect place to enjoy food, arts, landscapes and, why not journalism.

For more information on the International Journalism Festival visit www.journalismfestival.com.

To see the whole program www.journalismfestival.com/programme/2012

For updates you can follow IJF on Facebook and Twitter and if you want to watch IFJ events from the web, go to webtv.festivaldelgiornalismo.com/

Image Courtesy of   International Journalism Festival

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In a 7,000-word blockbuster Sunday, The New York Times reported that Walmart allegedly engaged in a vast campaign of bribery to expand the company’s Mexico business in the early 2000s, potentially violating U.S. law. The scheme was allegedly overseen by a Walmart executive, Eduardo Castro-Wright, described by The Times as “the driving force behind years of bribery” totaling millions of dollars.

Three years ago, Castro-Wright himself gave an interview to The Times in which he offered a somewhat different picture of his leadership style.

Castro-Wright sat for an interview in 2009 as part of The Times’ “Corner Office” series in which top executives talk “about leadership and management.” The Times asked Castro-Wright: “What message would you convey in a commencement speech?” He responded:

“Here in the United States, and any of the developed countries, I would tend to provide a speech along the lines of what I said before about what makes great leaders — the fact that there’s no leader who can be called one if they don’t have personal integrity, or if they don’t deliver results, or if they don’t care about the people they lead, or if they don’t have a passion for winning.”

Asked about the “most important leadership lesson” he’d learned in his career, Castro-Wright emphasized trust:

“There’s nothing that destroys credibility more than not being able to look someone in the eye and have them know that they can trust you. Leadership is about trust. It’s about being able to get people to go to places they never thought they could go. They can’t do that if they don’t trust you.”

The Times interview ran under the headline “In a Word, He Wants Simplicity” about five years after the period in which Castro-Wright had allegedly overseen systematic bribery.

In its front-page story yesterday, The Times quoted former Wal-Mart de Mexico executive Sergio Cicero Zapata alleging how and why Castro-Wright had authorized bribery:

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Cicero said Mr. Castro-Wright had encouraged the payments for a specific strategic purpose. The idea, he said, was to build hundreds of new stores so fast that competitors would not have time to react. Bribes, he explained, accelerated growth. They got zoning maps changed. They made environmental objections vanish. Permits that typically took months to process magically materialized in days. “What we were buying was time,” he said.

The meteoric growth of the company’s Mexican business translated into promotions for Castro-Wright. In 2005, he was appointed head of Walmart U.S., and in 2008 to his current position as vice chairman of Walmart and CEO of its global ecommerce business.

Walmart announced in September 2011 that Castro-Wright would retire this July. The company’s bio page that shows up as the second hit for Castro-Wright’s name on a Google search is now blank. Company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie told ProPublica that the page had been taken down after the announcement last September. Castro-Wright is also on the boards of insurer MetLife and the charity CARE.

Walmart has posted a statement on the Times piece, saying that it is “working aggressively to determine what happened” and that “if these allegations are true, it is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for.” The company informed the Justice Department of an internal investigation in December after it learned of The Times’ reporting, according to the paper.

by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, April 23, 2012, 5:02 p.m.

Image Courtesy of    Walmart Stores

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“An ancient Mediterranean necropolis described as one of the world’s greatest historical sites is being submerged beneath cement, high rise housing and rubbish dumps, according to Italian conservationists. Tuvixeddu – which means “hills with small cavities” in the Sardinian dialect – contains thousands of Phoenician and Punic burial chambers from the 6th century BC. It has long been robbed of funerary objects but some of its tombs have retained their original paintings, including “Ureo’s Tomb”, named after a sacred serpent, and “The Warrior’s Tomb”, in which a decoration depicts a warrior throwing a spear.”

This was the beginning of an article of the English newspaper The Times in 2008. The first time that a foreign newspaper turned its eyes to the biggest and unknown Phoenician necropolis of Mediterranean Sea, in the island of Sardinia in Italy. Before that article no one out of Italy had never heard about this archaeological area in the heart of Cagliari, the regional capital town of Sardinia.

Very few people know about this place even in Italy, very few people imagine that in a small angle of a not very popular town there is a place on a hill called Tuvixeddu and that this place is an ancient and beautiful necropolis more than 2500 years old.

Unfortunately the only reason why some newspaper told the story of this place is the “modern threat” of a future that seems not to have any respect for history. It’s unbelievable but the reality is that Tuvixeddu is becoming famous just for its struggle against the threat of 260 thousand cubic meters of cement.

Some years ago a project of more than 150 millions of euros has been proposed by a famous and powerful builder, Gualtiero Cualbu that seems to be a good supporter of the current regional president in office – who is of the same party of Berlusconi and was supported by the Prime Minister for his electoral campaign in 2009 with a strong advertisement -, and also a friend of various politicians of the right wing, that currently have the power and the administration of the major institutions in the island.

This “monstrous” project, supported without delay by the right parties, consists of the building of a new and functional residential area right next to the archaeological area of Tuvixeddu.

The former president of Sardinia,Renato Soru – of the left wing party-, with the support of the cultural and ecologist association Italia Nostra and the political group Sardegna Democratica, reported and stopped the building while he was in office – until 2009 – for defending the area and the treasures which are held inside the tombs and the cavities. But in 2009, after the loss of Soru, the new local government canceled the blockage and the project could be relaunched.

Some days ago the good news, the sentence of the Council of State blocked the building, saving in this way the necropolis from the cement. The struggle of the former regional president has been won, the monster that threatened this invaluable treasure – the cement – has been defeated. In a world where the respect for the ancient times and the antiquities counts less than the business and the personal and political interests this is an important conquest.

Now our wish is that Tuvixeddu could become famous for its real value and not just for its disgraces.

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