Society
AAPA Briefed by Terrorism Expert Bauer
There is no way to fully counter terrorism, and there are no "lone wolves," AAPA members learned during a lively discussion on Feb. 23 with French criminologist and security and terrorism expert Alain Bauer. All the terrorists who have been identified so far have been "connected" in some way, and most of their funding is coming from their own, often criminal, activities, he said. "The expression…
ENA Head Aims To Reform Selection Process
Achieving greater social diversity among the high-powered students at the Ecole Nationale de l'Administration is one of the challenges facing the prestigious school for France's elite managers and civil servants, AAPA members and their guests were told on Jan. 28 by ENA's director, Nathalie Loiseau. Mme Loiseau acknowledged that ENA's recruiting process tends to reproduce privilege. "It…
CNIL Chief Briefs AAPA On Digital Europe, Privacy and Security
How best to defend individual freedom, privacy and “the right to be forgotten” in a context of increased focus on public security and the fight against terrorism were the core topics when more than 20 AAPA members met on Jan. 21 with Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL). Speaking at the CNIL’s Parisian headquarters,…
AAPA Outlook Is Bright as Sun Shines on the Gala
The 2014 edition of the Anglo-American Press Association’s annual Gala on June 12 was sunny, in every respect: the weather was perfect, the attendance was high (93) and the mood was bright and cheery. Coming just days after the successful commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings -- which involved both the US and UK embassies, as well as many AAPA members -- everyone seemed…
A Field Guide for Global Reporting
A Field Guide for Global Reporting “Whenever you see hundreds of thousands of sane people trying to get out of a place, and a little bunch of madmen struggling to get in, you know the latter are newspapermen.” It was this astute observation by iconic reporter H.R. Knickerbocker that Mort Rosenblum uses as a peg for his latest book: "Little Bunch Of Madmen," designed as a field manual for global…
Florence Aubenas brings passion to prison reform
It was one of those rare, friendly, informal meetings with a top French journalist: Florence Aubenas, the prize-winning war correspondent and former hostage in Iraq, whose best-selling book Quai de Ouistreham, recounts her six months living as a lower-class cleaning lady, notably on an English ferry boat. A dozen members spent two hours with her at Member John Morris' Marais apartment March 15,…
Members discuss wine crisis, worst in 35 years
As Joe Ray wrote recently about a subject dear to many of our hearts, they say it's the worst wine crisis in France in 35 years. In Bordeaux, they say that it's the worst in 150 years. The problem? The numbers are down. Wine consumption within the country is beginning to lose out to beer and responsibility behind the wheel, while beyond French borders the rest of the world's winemakers are…
