CONTACT:
David Carlson, SPJ president, 352-846-0171 or carlson@spj.org


INDIANAPOLIS -- David Carlson, Cox/Palm Beach Post professor of new media journalism at the University of Florida, was installed as president of the Society of Professional Journalists Oct. 18 during the group’s annual convention.

Christine Tatum, a business writer for The Denver Post, was elected as president-elect. She will be installed as president at SPJ’s 2006 convention in Chicago. Bruce Cadwallader, a staff reporter at The Columbus Dispatch, was elected secretary-treasurer.

Immediate past president Irwin Gratz, Morning Edition producer for Maine Public Broadcasting, remains a member of the SPJ national board and its executive committee.

Carlson, in a speech that closed the convention, told the audience that journalism ethics does not come in a memo from the executive suite. “It has to come from each one of us,” said Carlson.

“I challenge you to take journalism ethics into your own hands,” said Carlson. “I challenge each of us to live by the SPJ Code of Ethics. I challenge each of us to become a force for ethical journalism in our own newsrooms.”

Carlson’s complete speech is available at http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/spj/.

Also elected to SPJ’s board of directors were:
* Vice President for Campus Chapter Affairs Mead Loop, associate professor, Ithaca College
* At-large Director Molly McDonough, legal affairs reporter for the ABA Journal
* Campus Adviser At Large Sue Kopen Katcef, lecturer/executive producer, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
* Campus Adviser At Large Neil Ralston, associate professor of journalism at Northwestern State University
* Student representative Ashlee Clark of Western Kentucky University
* Student representative Adrian G. Uribarri of the University of Florida
* Region 2 Director Ann Augherton, managing editor for the Arlington Catholic Herald
* Region 3 Director Holly Fisher, supplements editor for the Charleston Regional Business Journal
* Region 4 Director Joe Wessels, a freelance journalist based in Cincinnati, Ohio
* Region 6 Director Gordon Govier of the Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship
* Region 10 Director Nathan Isaacs, a staff reporter for the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash.
* Region 11 Director Paul McAfee, new/operations manager for PE.com, The Press-Enterprise Company in Riverside, Calif.
* Region 12 Director Clint Brewer, editor of The Lebanon Democrat in Lebanon, Tenn.

These individuals join current board members to make up the Society’s 23-member board of directors.

The Society of Professional Journalists works to improve and protect journalism. SPJ is dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, and based in Indianapolis, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

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