Despite constant pledges from the international community to “never again” allow atrocity crimes to occur, such killings continue to arise around the world. Yet, little discussion has taken place regarding the responsibilities of the international media, both in covering these events and participating in the trials that follow. Listen to a distinguished panel of experts examine the current international and hybrid criminal tribunals, as well as discuss the proper role of the media after witnessing atrocity crimes.

Fatou Bensouda is the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prior to joining the ICC, she worked as a legal adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She also served as the attorney general and Minister of Justice of The Gambia.

Serge Brammertz is the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He previously served as deputy prosecutor at the ICC from 2002 to 2007.

Courtenay Griffiths is the lead defense counsel to former Liberian President Charles Taylor in an ongoing trial before the Special Court of Sierra Leone.

Roy Gutman is the foreign editor at McClatchy Newspapers. He previously was a correspondent for Newsday and is a director of the Crimes of War Project, which works with the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1993 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Timothy McNulty is currently a lecturer at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. A veteran journalist, his career included roles as both a war correspondent and White House correspondent, including serving as the national and later foreign editor of the Chicago Tribune.

David J. Scheffer is the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern Law School. He previously served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.

Ellen Shearer is the William F. Thomas Professor in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and director of the school’s Washington Program, Medill News Service. She also is codirector of the school’s new National Security Journalism Initiative.

Christine Spolar is a senior editor at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. She has worked at the Chicago Tribune, CBS 60 Minutes II, The Miami Herald, and The Washington Post, where she served on the investigative team, as a national correspondent in Los Angeles, and as a foreign correspondent in Warsaw.

This program is cosponsored with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, and the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative at Northwestern University.

Recorded Thursday, February 04, 2010 at The Chicago Club.