The first North American meeting of the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) drew more than two dozen religion writers from the United States and around the world—including Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Serbia, Spain and Sri Lanka. They gathered in Salt Lake City (Utah, United States) for a two-day conference on “Cultivating Understanding, Accuracy, and Empathy in a Polarized World.” In this column, two veteran IARJ members—Peggy Fletcher Stack and Elisa Di Benedetto—report on highlights of the conference.

How can religions, media, international organizations and human rights advocates work together to address religious persecution? The IARJ’s Elisa Di Benedetto reports on the involvement of IARJ founding members at a gathering of more than 100 delegates from nearly 50 countries for the 26th Annual Law and Religion Symposium under the theme: Human Dignity and Religious Freedom at Brigham Young University.

This summer, journalists from Central and Eastern Europe gathered in Warsaw, Poland, for a conference exploring coverage of faith issues in public life, politics and history in the region, organized by the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) along with a number of sponsors. This column shares comments on these issues from many of the participants.

At our Warsaw conference, a public forum for experts on religion in Eastern Europe was sponsored by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). This session, titled “From Solidarity forward: The tangled web of religion, history and politics in Eastern Europe,” took place at the University of Warsaw Faculty of Journalism, and was streamed online.

“The Nexus between Freedom of Religion or Belief, and Freedom of Expression in Southeast Asia” seminar and workshop took place in Nusa Dua, a facility on Indonesia’s island of Bali in spring 2019. The IARJ’s Director Endy Bayuni shares an overview, plus a link to further coverage in The Jakarta Post.

Religion is often at the heart of European news, related to issues including migration, politics, culture and public life. To explore these complex topics, the IARJ is holding a regional conference in Warsaw (Poland) on June 13-14 under the title “Journalism and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe.” One session is open to the public and will be streamed online.

Douglas Todd reports on the importance of the 2017 conference for the International Association of Religion Journalists in Indonesia: “Our Indonesian conference beautifully accomplished one of the key goals of our organization, which is to work with global peers to raise awareness of the crucial importance of balanced, accurate and fair writing about matters of faith.”

Here is a six-minute video of IARJ conference participants from 15 countries visiting one of Indonesia’s distinctive Muslim boarding schools on the final day of our 2017 Jakarta conference. The video shows some of the school’s talented students and illustrates the importance of the visit to Indonesian leaders. Also included, mid-way through the video, are statements from IARJ leaders Douglas Todd and Endy Bayuni.

IARJ Chair Douglas Todd reports on a visit to one of Indonesia’s distinctive Muslim boarding schools by participants at the IARJ’s 2017 global conference in Jakarta.

IARJ member and contributing writer Rachel Kohn, an Australian journalist, reports on a fascinating panel featuring representatives of minority religious groups in Indonesia, which is the world’s seventh largest nation and also one of its most culturally and religiously diverse.