The International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) and the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII (FSCIRE), an Italian research institute focused on religious studies, are launching a new award for religion reporting, the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award. The new prize will honor the work of journalists in newspapers, magazines or news websites that publish regularly in Europe, including Iceland and Russia, and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has alerted the world to the arrest of journalist Erick Kabendera, who is an active member of The Association of Religion Journalists. Erick is known for promoting best practices in journalism around the world. Our IARJ board encourages CPJ efforts to ensure that Erick is safe and will be freed unharmed. In this article, we share more about Erick and also provide information from CPJ—and links to their coverage.

IARJ Executive Director Endy Bayuni, known around the world for his work as Senior Editor at the Jakarta Post, was in Washington D.C. recently to cover an event that was overshadowed in American news media by other news about President Trump. Bayuni’s columns on the conference join a chorus of other reporters pointing out the significance of this milestone. In this posting, you’ll find two columns that Endy wrote for The Jakarta Post—as well as links to several other helpful resources for reporters seeking background on this event.

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.

BOLOGNA, Italy, March 3, 2019—The International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) and the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII (FSCIRE), an Italian research institute focused on religious studies, have joined forces to launch a new award for religion reporting, the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award.

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.”

In this news-analysis, IARJ co-founder David Briggs explores the crucial issue of Islam and democracy—the global debate over whether these two traditions, one religious and one political, can co-exist peacefully and constructively in the world. In his overview, Briggs draws on expert voices raised at a panel discussion during the IARJ’s recent conference of Asian journalists in Jakarta, Indonesia. Then, he adds background (including some helpful web links), pointing toward related news events, research data and conclusions from other experts. This article includes links to video of the Jakarta panel discussion.