After a 3 year hiatus, Pressenza in New York organized its annual Get-Together on Saturday, January 6 at the office of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. This event was part of the campaign to collect funds during January.
For the first time after 2 years, it started to snow at the beginning of the reunion offering a winter view of the city.
The participants came from diverse backgrounds – journalists, authors, contributors, photographers, politicians, members of social organizations and a few guests connecting online. Yolanda Andersson opened the discussion with a short report back on the International Meeting in Athens, followed by Mariana Fernandez from Rosa Luxemburg who recalled the Nonviolent Journalism book-launching event last May. Then Pía Figueroa, co-director of Pressenza, gave an overview of the effort the agency is making to expand east and south, launching new languages like Russian, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese in the next few years. David Andersson followed, presenting the fundraising effort and asking people to donate to Pressenza during January.
There were also discussions about wars. Diane Sare, candidate for US Senate, reminded us how much the US invests in wars, economically, mentioning there are almost no elected officials in US Congress against the military complex. After the issue of Gaza was covered with responses from Sally Jones with Peace Action NYS and Anthony Donovan with Catholic Worker, inviting people to rally and take a stand against the killings.
Mayssa Issaoui, who participated online from Tunisia, closed the event with a brief description of her latest contribution – an interview with Balkis Chaabane about COP28 in an Arab country, and the lack of representation of Arab youth. Mayssa completed the full Nonviolent Journalism training in 2022 and has contributed over 14 articles.
Gustavo Espinoza and Franklin Chávez with the Ecuadorian Journalist Federation in New York covered the event with video and photos:
