KSU School of Communication and Media hosts visit from five international leaders interested in government transparency

 

KENNESAW, Ga. (Feb 17, 2017) — Dr. Carolyn S. Carlson, director of the Journalism and Emerging Media program for the KSU School of Communication and Media, hosted a visit from five international leaders interested in government transparency this week. Under the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program, four men and a woman from Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq are in the United States for several weeks to explore transparency issues and asked to meet with Carlson as a founding director and treasurer of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

Carlson invited KSU President Sam Olens, an expert in Georgia's Open Records and Open Meetings Acts, to meet with the visitors and present his perspective on government transparency as former Georgia attorney general. Also presenting to the group were Kerwin Swint, chair of the KSU Department of Political Science and International Affairs, and Dr. KennetH White, an associate professor of Criminal Justice and Political Science. Swint is a former board member of Common Cause Georgia.

Carlson discussed the Georgia First Amendment Foundation's activities educating members of the public, the bar and government officials on Georgia's Open Records and Open Meetings Acts. Olens explained the enforcement mechanisms of the attorney general's office and Swint discussed the transparency efforts of Common Cause Georgia.

The international visitors included: Mr. Fares Besrour, Chargé de Mission, Head of Government Cabinet, Head of the Government in Tunisia, Mr. Walaa Gadelkarim Mahmoud Osman, Director Manager, Partners for Transparency in Egypt, Mr. Bassem Karray, Associate Professor of Public Law, University of Sfax in Tunisia, Mr. Ahmed Khorsheed Tawfeeq, Spokesman, Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kirkuk Office in Iraq, and Ms. Nadia Gouta Ep Hamdi, Head of Department, General Directorate of Regional Development, Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, in Tunisia.

"We had a robust discussion about our American democracy and how access to government records and activities was the key to our stability as a democracy that has survived for 250 years," Carlson said.

Photo of SOCM guests(pictured left to right from Mr. Fares Besrour, Chargé de Mission, Head of Government Cabinet, Head of the Government in Tunisia, Dr. Barbara Gainey, Dr. Carolyn Carlson, Dean Robin Dorff, Mr. Walaa Gadelkarim Mahmoud Osman, Director Manager, Partners for Transparency in Egypt, KSU President Sam Olens, Mr. Bassem Karray, Associate Professor of Public Law, University of Sfax in Tunisia, Mr. Ahmed Khorsheed Tawfeeq, Spokesman, Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kirkuk Office in Iraq, and Ms. Nadia Gouta Ep Hamdi, Head of Department, General Directorate of Regional Development, Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, in Tunisia.)

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