March, 23 2015, 03:15pm EDT
'Frostpaw the Polar Bear' Will Rally Outside Hillary Clinton's D.C. Award Speech
Clinton Urged to Come Clean on Fossil Fuels, Speak Out Against Keystone XL
WASHINGTON
The Center for Biological Diversity's Frostpaw the Polar Bear and other activists will rally outside tonight's award celebration for The Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the keynote speaker. Activists will be calling on Clinton to demonstrate strong climate leadership and support much-needed action on climate change.
Clinton has been laying the groundwork for a 2016 presidential campaign but has yet to take strong positions on climate policy or come out against the Keystone XL pipeline. In light of a recent wave of media attention regarding the Clinton Foundation's ties with the oil industry, important questions have been raised about Clinton's qualifications as a climate leader.
"We need Hillary Clinton to stand against Keystone XL and provide a detailed plan for getting our country off the fossil fuels that are killing our planet," said Bill Snape, senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity.
What: Climate rally featuring Frostpaw the Polar Bear outside Hillary Clinton's keynote speech for the Toner Prize award celebration.
Where: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
When: March 23, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Visuals and Interviews: Frostpaw and representatives from Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and 350.org will be available for photos, filming and media interviews.
Background:
The Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting recognizes the best national or local political reporting in any medium or on any platform -- print, broadcast or online. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be this year's keynote speaker for the Toner Prize's award ceremony.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Arrests of US Journalists Surged in 2024 Amid Crackdown on Gaza Protests
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Arrests and detainments of journalists in the United States surged in 2024 compared to the year prior, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The tracker reports that journalists were arrested or detained by police at least 48 times this year—eclipsing the number of arrests that took place in the previous two years combined, and constituting the third highest number of yearly arrests and detentions since the project began cataloging press freedom violations in 2017. 2020, however, still stands as far and away the year with the most arrests and detentions.
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The report also recounts the story of Roni Jacobson, a freelance reporter whose experience on the last day of 2023 was a harbinger of press freedom incidents to come in 2024. Jacobson was on assignment to cover a pro-Palestinian demonstration for the New York Daily News on December 31, 2023 when she was told to leave by police because she didn't have city-issued press credentials with her. She recounted that she accidentally bumped into an officer and was arrested. She was held overnight at a precinct and then released after the charges against her, which included disorderly conduct, were dropped.
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