In an essay for Columbia Journalism Review, writer Jordan Michael Smith says the capture of U.S. diplomats by Iranian students 30 years ago this week had “pernicious” effects on the U.S. public’s attitude on Iran. read more »

Journalists and the public can now access newly declassified U.S. government documents that are compiled in two online “briefing books” posted this week by the non-governmental National Security Archive: read more »

Troubled boys who were sent to a state-run school in Florida decades ago say they remember being beaten by a one-armed man with a leather strap. The youth, now men, all recall similar memories that are both too painful to recall but too difficult to forget, PoynterOnline reports. read more »

Journalists and the public can access a new "electronic briefing book" in English and Spanish containing declassified documents about the relationship between Washington and Guatemala during a 36-year civil war. The book was prepared by Kate Doyle and Jesse Franzblau of the National Security Archive, the non-governmental research archive in Washington, D.C. that collects and publishes declassified documents. read more »

The National Security Archive, a non-profit research center at George Washington University in Washington D.C., uses the Freedom of Information Act to collect and publish documents about a host of U.S. policies. The Archive has won the prestigious George Polk Journalism Award for its service to the profession.

Newly released "briefing books" include: read more »

As part of an extensive multimedia package (in Spanish) marking the 50th anniversary of Cuba’s 1959 revolution, BBC’s Spanish-language service examines how newspapers in the Americas and Europe covered the emergence of Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army.

“The Cuban Revolution in the Headlines” includes articles from newspapers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela; as well as European and U.S. newspapers.