Free Video Conference on Open Government and Secrecy

From UNM Today:
University Libraries and the UNM Law Library are sponsoring a video conference in honor of National Sunshine Week at the UNM Conference Center at Continuing Education, Room G, on Monday, March 13, 2006 from 11 AM to 12:30 PM. The free video conference will feature a panel of experts from Washington D.C. to discuss open government, secrecy, and an illustrative video montage.

Titled “Are We Safer in the Dark? An Overview,” the discussion will include conversation about how transparency or the lack thereof can affect the government’s readiness and response to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

Speakers
Geneva Overholser, holder of an endowed chair in the Missouri School of Journalism’s Washington bureau, will moderate the panel. She is a former editor of the Des Moines Register, ombudsman of the Washington Post and an editorial board member of the New York Times.

Panelists include Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington D. C., and Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, a state coalition that protects and advances the public’s constitutional right to open government by providing education and training, legal aid and information services. For more specific information on the conference and National Sunshine Week, please contact Kathleen Keating at kkeating@unm.edu

UNM Conference Center
UNM conference Center is located at 1634 University Blvd. NE, in the north building of the Continuing Education complex. Seating for the conference is limited to the first 50 participants.

Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu