The letter acknowledges Paul Richard Hills' two week guest lectures at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. The students found his presentations on reporting in Africa and journalism ethics to be fascinating and engaging. Hills challenged the students to think critically about issues like constraints on citizen journalism in Africa imposed by officials and how journalists can reconcile detachment with exposing government lies. The professor requests that Hills return next semester as a guest lecturer to share his valuable professional experience and insights that are difficult to obtain otherwise.

1. Phillip Merrill College of Journalism
1100 Knight Hall, University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-711
30/03/ 2010
Paul Richard Hills
Journalist/Researcher/Film-maker
Humphrey Fellow
University of Maryland
College Park
Professional Affiliation (teaching)
Dear Paul
I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the two weeks you spent with me and my undergraduate and graduate students
last semester. The breadth of your experience in Africa as a journalist and your teaching experience at Rhodes more recently made
for very interesting material for the students and accounted for the high levels of interest and engagement in the seminar we ran. I
also feel that we worked well together to tease out some of the complex concepts under the spotlight, drawing on each other’s
strengths and experience. Your presentation was of a very high caliber, and the discussions of ethics in the context of journalism in
developing societies were fascinating for American students.
My journalism ethics class also greatly enjoyed your presentation on reporting in Africa. You raised a number of questions that the
students had not considered before. These included the claim of certain African intellectuals that western-style “watchdog”
journalism is a form of imperialism -- and rebuttal arguments that you helped students formulate. The readings that you provided on
this controversy were excellent background for our discussion of citizen journalism in southern Africa and constraints imposed on it
by national and local officials.
Your discussion of news manipulation under South African apartheid – and the ways you got around it -- challenged students to
think hard about the limits of traditional reporting on government, so often dominated by what officials say. How can a journalist
reconcile the principle of detachment with the obligation to expose official lies and abuses? The class had addressed this question in
the American setting. You forced them to consider it again in a context where neutrality was far harder to justify.
I would be grateful if you could come back as a guest lecturer next semester. You provided insights based on professional
experience and scholarly study that are hard to come by and I wish you were teaching full time at the Merrill College.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher Hanson
Associate Professor
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
University of Maryland, College Park
chanson@jmail.umd.edu
301 405 6049