Award Winning Journalist to Speak on Recent Events in Kazakhstan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/28/05 Contact: Alisha Kirchoff, CREECA events coordinator, at 608-262-3379 or events@creeca.wisc.edu Madison, WI- Jerry Huffman will speak about “The Gucci Revolution” in Kazhakstan at 4 p.m. on Monday, December 5 in room 5055 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Huffman, an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, was based in Kazakhstan from 1998 to 1999 as the Central Asian news advisor for Internews. He recently returned to the former Soviet republic at the invitation of the State Department to teach two seminars in political reporting. When he worked for Internews, Huffman oversaw its broadcast operations in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. He also helped launch Central Asia’s first independent news program, “Open Asia,” the first non-governmental news program that carried stories from across the region. In 1998 Huffman also helped organize the first “live” television debate between Parliamentary candidates in Kyrgyzstan. More recently, he has led media training teams in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Russia. In Wisconsin, Huffman was the co-anchor of Wisconsin Public Television’s flagship news program, WeekEnd, now off the air. He is now communications director of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. Huffman’s talk, part of the Central Asia Lecture Series, is co-sponsored by the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, a member program of the UW–Madison’s International Institute, and the UW–Madison School of Journalism.