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FCNL Welcomes Helena Cobban as Friend in Washington on Assignment
Well known writer, blogger will work with Quaker Lobby
For immediate release - February 12, 2007
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is delighted to announce that Quaker columnist and author Helena Cobban has agreed to begin a six month tenure as an FCNL Friend in Washington. During this collaboration with the Quaker lobby, Helena will continue her work as a columnist for The Christian Science Monitor, as a blogger with “Just World News” and The Nation, and as a writer for other outlets.
The FCNL community, which includes tens of thousands of people around the United States, will benefit tremendously from Helena’s incisive analysis, building on her 30 years of close study of international affairs, in and beyond the Middle East.
Helena has been an active member of Charlottesville Friends Meeting (Quakers) for nearly ten years. She says, “Many of the qualities of a good journalist are qualities Quakers value highly, such as the desire to seek out and listen calmly to all points of view, a commitment to fairness and human equality, and dedication to finding and disseminating the truth while being humble enough to admit past mistakes. I am excited about this new relationship with FCNL, whose work I admire enormously.”
Helena has contributed a column on global affairs to The Christian Science Monitor since 1990. Her columns have been syndicated in scores of national and international publications, and since 2003, she has shared her insights on the Middle East and international affairs through her personal weblog, "Just World News." She has published six books and serves on Human Rights Watch's Middle East advisory committee.
We at FCNL are seeking to establish a relationship that allows Helena to maintain her journalistic independence and integrity, without her readers wondering if her writings reflect her views or those of the Quaker lobby. To clarify this relationship for her readers, Helena will be identified in many of her public writings as an "FCNL Friend in Washington. She is writing this in her personal capacity."
Though her title with us is “Friend in Washington”, Helena is currently at the start of a long-planned, three-month sojourn in the Middle East and Europe. We will keep in close touch with her, and are confident that her experiences there will only strengthen the contribution she is able to make. We look forward to her return to the United States in early May.
Read Helena Cobban’s most recent column in The Christian Science Monitor.
Visit “Just World News”
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The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
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