“High Value Lies: Ethics and Undercover Investigations in the Contemporary News Environment”

This year’s Silha Spring Ethics Forum features Alan Chen, the Thompson G. Marsh Law Alumni Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, co-author of Truth and Transparency: Undercover Investigations in the Twenty-First Century and Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment.

Prof. Chen’s book talk will discuss the legal and media ethics implications of undercover reporting, both contemporary and historical.  A former ACLU staff attorney, he will focus on the rise of so-called “ag-gag” laws, designed to criminalize unauthorized investigations of agricultural facilities to expose inhumane or illegal practices. He actively litigates cases in federal courts across the country challenging these statutes, many of which have been struck down as unconstitutional. 

Prof. Chen. teaches and writes about free speech doctrine and theory, and has published numerous scholarly articles about the First Amendment in leading national law journals. 

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication honored Truth and Transparency with the 2024 James A. Tankard, Jr. Book Award for the most outstanding book in the field of journalism and communication.  The New York Review of Books called it “the definitive work on this subject and a powerful resource for lawyers.”  Truth and Transparency will be available for sale at the Silha Spring Ethics Forum; a book signing will follow the event.

The 2025 Silha Spring Ethics Forum will also be offered as an online webinar.  You can register here. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, the Minnesota Journalism Center, and the Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists