Frank’s recent media appearances related to his book, The NRA: The Unauthorized History (Flatiron, 2020):
Frank appeared on NPR’s 1A talking about his book the day it was released in the early days of the pandemic. Vox tagged its review “The NRA’s surprising history.” He discussed the NRA on podcasts including Keen on, the Emmy Award-winning Dave Marash‘s Here and There podcast, American Rambler with Colin Woodward, MIP Make It Plain with Mark Thompson, The Conversation with Michael Shure, Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York, Alternative Radio, The Majority Report with Sam Seder and Skullduggery with Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman.
Smyth appeared on NPR again, and on BBC World after the New York Attorney General, Leticia James, announced a civil lawsuit against the NRA over alleged embezzlements. The Progressive and New America each hosted online book talks by Frank in early 2021. He appeared on Democracy Now! after the Atlanta and Boulder shootings. Frank appears prominently throughout the 90-minute documentary about the NRA, “The Price of Freedom,” directed by Judd Ehrlich and produced by Flatbush Pictures that aired on CNN in September 2021.
Frank’s interviews on international and other topics have appeared on broadcast media including:
CNN, CNN en Español, MSNBC, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, Reuters Television, Reuters Television en Español, Public Broadcasting Service “News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” PRI’s “The World,” C-Span, BBC, BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, Voice of America, Radio FranceInternationale, “Democracy Now!”, WBAI New York, Pacifica, KPFA San Francisco, WNYC New York.
Frank’s investigative reports or expert statements have been referenced or quoted in print media including:
The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, The Washington Times, and the Associated Press.
Frank also appeared on the “Lean Forward” MSNBC network discussing the gun lobby in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. His award-winning Mother Jones story about the National Rifle Association and showing ties to both Newtown and the firm that made the rifle used in the school.
In 2016, before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Frank appeared in his capacity as the executive director of Global Journalist Security on The Daily Show.
Frank has testified on press freedom and journalist security before U.S. and international bodies including:
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee (formerly the International Relations Committee), the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the U.S. Helsinki Commission, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. and the United Nations Member States of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna.
Frank has spoken at other forums including:
Panel Speaker, “Treatment of Journalists: Friends, Enemies and the Erosion of Press Freedoms,” American Bar Association Communications Law Conference, moderated by Natalie Spears and including fellow panelists Jason Conti, Executive Vice President and General Counsel Dow Jones & Company, Runa Sandvik, Senior Director of Information Security, The New York Times, and Brian Stelter, Senior Media Correspondent for CNN and Host of Reliable Sources, Miami, Florida, February 1, 2019.
Panel Speaker, “Security Case Studies with Safe+Secure at Doc Society,” Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival, moderated by Sara Rafsky and including fellow panelists Connie Pendleton, Elana Newman, Assia Boundaoui, Shannon Service, Stephen Maing and Harlo Holmes, Washington, D.C., October 12, 2018.
Panel Speaker, “Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Virtually Reporting the Realities of the SDGs [Social Development Goals],” Media for Social Impact Summit, United Nations Headquarters, New York, September 14, 2017.
Speaker, “Dealing with Civil Unrest,” International Association of Professional Security Consultants, annual conference, Austin, Texas, May 7, 2017.
Panel Speaker, “The Rule of Law? The Fourth Estate Under Siege,” hosted by the American Bar Association Section on International Law, moderated by Jill Mariani, NY County District Attorney Office, with American University Washington College of Law Dean Emeritus Claudio Grossman, Ginna Anderson, ABA Center for Human Rights, and Gene Policinski, Newseum Institute, First Amendment Center, Newseum, Washington, D.C., April 26, 2017.
Panel Speaker, “Terrorism and Radicalism in Open Society,” with Smyth focusing on “Violence as Communication: The Changed Relationship Between Insurgents, Terrorists and the Press,” with Pete Simi of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Scott Sayare, an American writer and reporter living in Paris, Omar Adullah, an Iraqi-born student at the VCU Wilder School, John Wyman, supervisory special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and moderator Natalie Baker, assistant professor in the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness program, Center for Public Policy Symposium, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, April 14, 2016. VIDEO.
Moderator, Safety of Journalists panel, with Tarlach McGonagle of the University of Amsterdam law school, Mikhael Zyghar, editor-in-chief of the independent Russian TV channel Dozhd, and Oksana Romaniuk, executive director of the Kiev-based Institute of Mass Information, Journalists’ Safety, Media Freedom and Pluralism in Times of Conflict conference, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Vienna, Austria, June 15, 2015.
Panel Speaker, “Reporting under Fear,” First Draft of History Series with CNN’s Peter Bergen, The SAIS Review, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, with Pamela Constable, Raza Rumi, Allison Shelly and J.S. Tissainayagam, April 30, 2015.
Panel Speaker, Journalist Safety panel before U.N. Member States at the U.N. Human Rights Council with U.N. Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay, U.N. Free Expression Special Rapporteur Frank LaRue, UNESCO Deputy Director Getachew Engida, OSCE Free Media Representative Dunja Mijatovic, Egyptian journalist Abeer Saady, and moderator former Al Jaeera English co-anchor Ghida Fakhry, Geneva, Switzerland, June 11, 2014. VIDEO.
Panel Speaker, “Good Practices on the Safety of Journalists & the Issue of Impunity,” Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), San Jose, Costa Rica, May 3, 2013.
Panel Speaker, “Covering Global Conflict,” Center for Global Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, March 4, 2013.
Panel Speaker,” Digital Security and Press Freedom In Latin America,” Center for International Media Assistance, National Endowment for Democracy with Freedom House’s Mariclaire Acosta, NED Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow Eduardo Bertoni, ICFJ/Freedom House’s Jorge Luis Sierra, ICFJ’s Joyce Barnathan and NED’s Miriam Kornblith, Washington, D.C., February 12, 2013. VIDEO
Panel Speaker,”The Gap Between Security Risks and Security Practices,” at “Protecting Journalism: Anonymous and Secure Communications for Reporters and Sources,” Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, November 29, 2012. VIDEO
Panel Speaker, “Journalism Under Duress: Risks of Reporting Conflict,” Online News Association, San Francisco, September 22, 2012.
Panel Speaker, “Digital Security Tools for Working Journalists,” Society of Professional Journalists–Northern California, San Francisco, September 19, 2012, with CPJ’s Danny O’Brien, First Amendment attorney Geoffrey King, and Al Jazeera English’s Melissa Chan.
Panel Speaker, “Journalist On-Site and Online,” Internews, Washington, D.C., June 13, 2012, with CPJ’s Danny O’Brien and The Washington Post‘s Rajiv Chandrasekaran, moderated by Internews’ Kathleen Reen.
Speaker, “Security and Training for Journalists,” 10th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas: Safety and Protection for Journalists, Bloggers and Citizen Journalists, Knight Center for the Americas, Austin, Texas, May 20-22, 2012.
Workshop, “Journalists’ Personal Safety,” Central American Journalism Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador, May 16-17, 2012.
Speaker, U.S. State Department video program, “Digital Safety in a Networked World,” moderated by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Dan Baer also interviewing Karen Reilly of the Tor Project, May 3, 2012 (World Press Freedom Day), Washington, D.C. VIDEO
Speaker, “Frontline Club News Safety Initiative,” closed talk at Frontline Club, London, United Kingdom, May 8, 2012.
Panel Speaker, “Journalist Security: On-Site and Online,” Committee to Protect Journalists and Columbia University Journalism School, New York, New York, May 2, 2012.
Panel Speaker, “Arming Genocide in Rwanda,” on Arms Trade Treaty and Human Rights panel, Amnesty International USA Annual General Meeting, Denver, Colorado, March 31, 2012.
Moderator, “Repression of Expression in the Middle East,” National Press Club, Washington, D.C., February 14, 2012.
Moderator, Plenary Panel, “Advocacy vs. Objectivity: Media and Human Rights,” Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Bonn, Germany, June 23, 2011.
Speaker via Video Link, “Journalist Security in Guatemala,” Tercer Encuentro Internacional entre Periodistas de Los Departamentos y de la Capital de Guatemala,” Cuidad de Guatemala, 28 de Mayo, 2011. VIDEO (en español)
Panel Speaker, “Journalists under attack: Security and trauma,” Free Media Conference, Institutt for Journalistikk, Tønsberg, Norway, April 1, 2011.
Speaker, “Practicing Journalism in a Smaller, Riskier World,” Communities in Conversation Participatory Lecture Series, Global Communities, The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, November 11, 2010.
Panel Host and Moderator, “Hidden dangers? The risks and challenges of environmental
reporting,” Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Bonn, Germany, June 21 – 23, 2010.
Panel Speaker, “Censorship without Borders: 21st Century Threats to Media Freedom,”
sponsored by Freedom House at the Newseum, Washington, D.C., April 29, 2010.
Panel Speaker, “Journalism in Times of Drugs: Under Threats, Violence and
Censorship,” McCormick Foundation Specialized Reporting Institute: Cross-border
Coverage of U.S.-Mexico Drug Trafficking, Knight Center for Journalism in the
Americas, University of Texas at Austin, March 26 – 27, 2010. (Closed discussion.)
Speaker, “Investigative Journalism: Methods, Ethics and Security,” presentation
in Spanish, Institute of the Americas, San Diego, CA., July 23, 2009.
Panel Host and Moderator, “Suppressed Websites – Will Censor Lose the Race?”
Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Bonn, Germany, June 3 – 5, 2009.
“Mechanisms for protection and for combating impunity crimes against journalists: best practices and regional challenges,” testimony in Spanish by Frank Smyth, Representative and Journalist Security Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists, before the Organization of American States Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs, Special Meeting on the Right to Freedom of Thought and Expression and the Importance of the Media, OAS Headquarters, April 23, 2009.
Panel Speaker, Journalists Memorial Rededication Ceremony, Newseum, Washington,
D.C., March 30, 2009.
Panel Speaker, “Military Hate Speech and Guatemala’s Genocidal Acts,” seminar
on “Speech, Power, and Violence,” U.S. Committee on Conscience, United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., February 5 – 6, 2009.
Speaker, “Press Freedom at Home and Abroad,” School of Journalism, University of
Montana, Missoula, Montana, October 27, 2008.
Speaker, “Investigative Journalism: No Easy Job,” at event hosted by Daniel Pearl World
Music Days, Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, New York, October 9, 2008.
Moderator, two-part panel, “Covering Hostile Environments: From Conflict Zones to
Organized Crime,” Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Bonn, Germany, June 5, 2008.
Panel Speaker, “The Mafia: What Journalists Need to Protect Themselves,” on panel
hosted by Italian Information and Safety and Freedom, Foreign Press Association (Italy),
Rome, Italy, May 28, 2008.
Speaker, “Reporting in Hostile Environments,” S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications,
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, April 9, 2008.
Panel Speaker, “Beijing’s Olympics Countdown,” NewsXchange, Berlin, Germany,
October 26, 2007.
Moderator, “Press Freedom in Morocco,” Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the
Press, Washington, D.C., September 21, 2007.
Speaker, “Dangerous Assignments,” Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, April 13,
2007.
Panel Speaker, “Press Freedom and Future Armed Conflicts,” 3rd Annual Al-Jazeera
Forum, Doha, Qatar, April 2, 2007.
Panel Speaker, “Media and Elections,” Fourth Global Electoral Organizational
Conference, International Foundation for Election Systems, Washington, D.C., March
28, 2007.
Speaker, “Foreign and Domestic Threats to Freedom of the Press and the Dangers a Weakened Press Poses for Civil Rights and Liberties,” Civil Rights Committee, Philadelphia Bar Association, September 19, 2006, (http://www.philadelphiabar.org/WebObjects/PBAReadOnly.woa/Contents/WebServerResources/CMSResources/CR091906.mp3).
“U.S. Press Freedom Post-9/11,” presentation by Frank Smyth, Washington Representative and Journalist Security Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists, before the Commission of Jurists Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights, American University, Washington College of Law, September 8, 2006.
Panel Speaker, “Media Coverage,” Summer Institute on Democracy and Elections,
Center for Democracy and Election Management, American University, Washington,
D.C., June 5 – 15, 2006.
Panel Speaker, “Human Rights and the Media,” Global Rights, Washington, D.C.,
March 15, 2006. Fellow panelists were Judith Woodruff, former PBS and CNN
News anchor, and Sanford Unger, former director of Voice of America.
Panel Speaker, “Finding Solutions for Journalist Safety,” Museum of Television and
Radio, New York, N.Y., September 9, 2005. Opening remarks by Alberto Ibargüen,
President and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Richard Sambrook,
Director of Global News, BBC International; Moderated by CNN’s John Roberts,
panel comprised of: Ron Allen, Correspondent, NBC News; Ethan Bronner, Deputy
Foreign Editor, The New York Times; Chris Cramer, Managing Director, CNN
International; Roy Gutman, Foreign Editor, Newsday; David Marash, Correspondent,
ABC News “Nightline”; Frank Smyth, Journalist Security Coordinator, Committee to
Protect Journalists; Ricardo Trotti, Director, Inter-American Press Association.
Speaker, “Modern Genocide, other Abuses, and Healing,” Holocaust Remembrance
Project, Holland & Knight, Llp., Washington, D.C., July 26, 2005.
Testimony by Frank Smyth, Washington Representative and Journalist Security Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists, before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, April 14, 2005.
Participant, “Measuring the Humanitarian Impact of War Workshop,” National Security
and Human Rights Program, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University, at the Brookings Institution, Washington,
D.C., November 8 – 9, 2004.
Moderator, Panel Discussion after private screening of the film “Control Room,” by
Director Jehane Noujaim and Producer Rosadel Varela, Motion Picture Association
of America, Washington, D.C., July 9, 2004.
Speaker, “The Media at War,” Cape Ann Forum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, January 25,
2004.
Panel Speaker, on Guatemala, “Women Waging Peace Policy Day,” Women Waging
Peace, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, November 7, 2003.
Discussant, of “Use and Abuse of Media in Vulnerable Societies,” by Mark Frohardt,
Regional Director for Africa, and Jon Temin, Program Associate, Internews, published
by the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., October 29, 2003.
Panel Speaker, “Democracy and Human Rights in the Mediterranean,” United
States Helsinki Commission, Commission on Security & Cooperation in
Europe, Washington, D.C., October 3, 2003.
Panel Speaker, “Journalist Security Training,” Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Kansas City, MO, August 2, 2003.
Moderator, “Seeing Justice for Iraq: Who Will Shuffle the Deck of Cards?” Swiss Foundation for World Affairs, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, Washington, D.C., May 14, 2003. Speakers included Carla del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International War Crimes Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Ambassador David Scheffer, former ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues under President Bill Clinton, Ruth Wedgewood, Professor of Law at Johns Hopkins University/SAIS, and Judge Stephen Schwebel, former President of the International Court of Justice.
Speaker, “The First Bush Administration’s Abandonment of Iraqi Shi’ites and Kurds
following the Gulf War,” Tufts University, Boston, MA., February 22, 2003.
Panel Speaker, Journalist Security, three-day seminar held following the murder of
TV journalist Tim Lopes; conference led to formation of Brazilian Association of
Investigative Journalism (Abraji), Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, August 29 – 31, 2002.
“In U.S. Senate Testimony, CPJ Calls for U.S. Ban on Recruiting Journalists as Spies,” testimony by CPJ Washington Representative Frank Smyth, Subcommittee on Operations and Terrorism, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, May 2, 2002.
“CPJ testifies before U.S. Congress on press freedom conditions in Central Asia,” testimony by CPJ Washington Representative Frank Smyth for the joint hearing of the House Subcommittees on International Operations and Human Rights and Middle East and South Asia on “Silencing Central Asia: The Voice of Dissidents,” July 18, 2001.
Panel Speaker, “’News’ versus ‘Snooze’: An Inside Look at How the International Media Covers Crises and Conflict,” U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., May 11, 2000; fellow panelists Daniel Benjamin, former National Security Council staff member, Scott Peterson, correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor.
Debater, Affirmative, “Can Saddam Hussein Be Toppled [without U.S. troops]?” opponent, Gideon Rose, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, John J. McCloy Roundtable Series on Setting the National Security Agenda, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, March 4, 1999.
Debater, Affirmative, “Can Saddam Hussein Be Toppled [without U.S. troops]?” opponent, Kenneth M. Pollack, former CIA analyst, National Defense University, John J. McCloy Roundtable Series on Setting the National Security Agenda, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C., February 26, 1999.
Speaker, “The Military/Paramilitary Partnership and the United States in Colombia,” Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, MA., November 1996.
Speaker, “Arming Rwanda,” Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., June 1994.
Speaker, “The Gulf War and its Aftermath,” Bologna Center, Johns Hopkins University
School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy, March 1992.
Event Speaker, “The Gulf War,” New School for Social Research, New York, New York,
April 1991.
Panel Speaker, “The Jesuit Murders in El Salvador,” fellow panelists included Kenneth
E. Sharpe and Morris Blachman, Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California, January
1990.
Panel Speaker, “El Salvador at War,” Latin American Studies Association annual conference
(fellow panelists were to include Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J. and Segundo Montes, S.J., of the
Jesuit University of Central America José Simeón Cañas in El Salvador, but both men were
among the six Jesuits killed two weeks before on the campus lawn) moderated by
Tommie Sue Montgomery, Miami, Florida, December 1989.
Panel Speaker, “El Salvador’s armed conflict,” Global Citizens Circle, Boston, MA.,
June 1989.
Panel Speaker, “El Salvador’s armed conflict,” Council on Foreign Relations, New York,
June 1989.
Panel Speaker, “Human Rights Abuses in El Salvador,” Congressional Human Rights
Caucus, Washington, D.C., June 1989.