In conversation with Diane Foley
Sat 12 April 2025
12:35
Free
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Following the publication of American Mother in Italy, Diane Foley speaks with journalist and author Laura Silvia Battaglia about her experience co-writing the book with author Colum McCann, the birth of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and her role as a leading advocate for US hostages and wrongful detainees. As one of the founding members of the ACOS Alliance, Diane will also discuss the importance of supporting the work and safety of freelance journalists like her son James W. Foley, who was kidnapped and publicly beheaded by ISIS in Syria in 2014, and the values that have shaped, informed and supported her during the last decade.
Organised in association with ACOS Alliance.
Modified more than a month ago
Pages involved
Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo
Il Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo di Perugia è un evento annuale che riunisce professionisti dei media, esperti di comunicazione e appassionati di informazione da tutto il mondo. Si svolge nel centro storico di Perugia e offre conferenze, dibattiti, workshop e opportunità di networking sui temi più rilevanti del giornalismo contemporaneo.
Giornalismo
Pagina tematica del giornalismo
Laura Silvia Battaglia al-Jalal
Laura Silvia Battaglia al-Jalal, giornalista freelance e documentarista, lavora come reporter in aree di crisi dal 2007 ed è conduttrice e autrice per Rai Radio 3. Specializzata in Medio Oriente, con particolare focus su Iraq e Yemen, ha lavorato come corrispondente da Sanaa (Yemen) per l'agenzia video-giornalistica americano-libanese Transterra Media, l'agenzia turca TRTWorld, il servizio pubblico svizzero (RSI), Index on Censorship, The Fair Observer, Guernica Magazine e The Week India. Per i media italiani collabora stabilmente con quotidiani, network radiofonici, televisione, periodici e siti web. Ha girato, autoprodotto e distribuito dieci documentari, tra i quali Yemen, nonostante la guerra, prodotto da Rai Doc, uno spaccato nella vita dei civili yemeniti in guerra. Ha vinto i premi Luchetta, Siani, Cutuli, Anello Debole e Giornalisti del Mediterraneo. Dal 2007 insegna in diverse istituzioni italiane ed europee, compreso l'Istituto Reuters all'Università di Oxford. Ha scritto...
Diane Foley
Diane M. Foley is President and founder of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which she created in September 2014 less than a month after the public beheading by ISIS in Syria of her son James W. Foley, an American freelance conflict journalist. In 2015, she led JWFLF efforts to fund the start of Hostage US and the International Alliance for a Culture of Safety, ACOS. She actively participated in the National Counterterrorism Center hostage review which culminated in the Presidential Policy Directive-30. This directive created the current US hostage enterprise consisting of an interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, and a White House Hostage Response Group to free innocent Americans taken hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. JWFLF was instrumental in the passage of the Robert Levinson Hostage Taking and Accountability Act. She has been a tireless hostage, wrongful detainee and family advocate within the US hostage enterprise, Congress, and every presidential administration since 2014. She has raised awareness of international hostage-taking and wrongful detention using the award-winning documentary, Jim, the James Foley story, opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today and media interviews. Diane has spoken on the power of forgiveness in various faith communities and was included in 200 Women, edited by Geoff Blackwell. She co-authored the book American Mother which was published in 2024 with writer Colum McCann. Diane is also the author of a chapter called, Life For A Voice: the Work of Journalist James W. Foley through the Eyes of his Family in Living with Precariousness, edited by Christina Lee and Susan Leong, which was published in 2023. Previously, Diane worked as a community health nurse and as a family nurse practitioner for 18 years. She received both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire. She is active in her Roman Catholic parish of St Katherine Drexel in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where she lives with her husband, Dr. John W. Foley. She is the mother of five children.