Libby Joins CPJ, Richest Journalism Org, in PR Post

Samantha Libby, previously with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has joined the Committee to Protect Journalists, New York, as communications associate. PR vets Gypsy Kaiser and Magnus Ag left CPJ.

CPJ had its most successful fund-raising dinner ever on Nov. 25, raising $2.7 million. Much of it will be added to net assets which totaled $14,860,833 at the end of 2013, making it the world’s richest journalistic organization.

Libby is a 2009 graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Dramatic Writing. She received a Master of International Affairs, Human Rights, Media and Advocacy from NYU in 2013.

Previously at the Brady Campaign in 2012-13, she was a field researcher for USAID from June to August 2012, compiling an investigative report on the lives of vulnerable children in the Gedeo, Sidama and Halaba ethnic zones of Ethiopia.

She was previously lead content editor, Europe and the Middle East, World Hotel Link, serving from January 2011 to June 2012 in Hanoi, Vietnam and New York. Other posts were with Conflict Awareness Project, Bui Gallery, head teacher an autism specialist at Maple Bear Kindergarten, Hanoi, and The Ontological Theater, New York.

PR Vets Kaiser, Ag Leave CPJ

Gypsy Kaiser and Magnus Ag, who had PR titles and worked for CPJ four years and three months and four years and two months, respectively, have left CPJ.

Kaiser had been with Transparency International, global anti-corruption organization based in Berlin, from February 2006 to October 2010 when she joined CPJ as media and PR manager. Her last title at CPJ was advocacy and communications director.

She has been an independent consultant since September 2013.

Ag, who joined CPJ in 2010 as advocacy and communications associate, left last month to join Freemuse, Copenhagen, Denmark, a group that supports the right of musicians to freely express themselves.

Previously he was a freelancer for Martin Breum’s Book Project on the Artic from 2009-11, assisting journalist Breum with his book on the Arctic region. Ag has a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen.

Michael Calderone wrote an extensive article on the Nov. 25 CPJ dinner for Huffington Post.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and host for the CPJ dinner, spoke of how journalist James Foley lost his life because he was bearing witness to the violence in Syria and how it “wasn’t just another story” and “wasn’t just another war.”

Because "elected officials failed to act” in response to the Syrian conflict, she said, “the most unspeakably brutal, atrocious group that we’ve seen in decades" was able to rise.

“We thought al Qaeda was bad,” she continued. “ISIS is the depth of depravity, and our journalists have paid with their lives.”

Diane and John Foley, the parents of journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by Islamic State militants, received a standing ovation from the crowd, Calderone reported. “We’ve come to realize how vital the free press is in protecting its own,” said Diane Foley, who urged the assembled media community to advocate for “any captured journalist wherever they may be.”