Press Briefing/Update: "NIGHT OUT FOR AUSTIN TICE" Campaign

Watch the Mar. 8 press briefing above.

Visit www.nightoutforaustin.com for the latest updates, restaurants and other info.

The National Press Club and its Free Austin Tice Coalition partners will hold a news conference on Friday, March 8 at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the progress of NIGHT OUT FOR AUSTIN TICE -- a campaign announced this past November to raise reward money for information leading to the safe return of Austin Tice, the award-winning journalist who was taken hostage in August of 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria.

WHEN: 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 8

WHERE: The Zenger Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW (13th floor) Washington, DC, 20045

WHO:

• Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, President of the National Press Club;


• Representatives from Women Chefs and Restaurateurs;


• Local chefs and restaurant owners;


• Austin's parents, Marc and Debra Tice, will participate via Skype.

BACKGROUND:

In April of 2018 the FBI offered a reward of $1 million for information leading to the safe return of Austin Tice. In an effort to intensify the search for Tice, the National Press Club, along with other Free Austin Tice Coalition partners, announced the "Night Out For Austin Tice" initiative – a national awareness and fundraising campaign to take place in restaurants across the country on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, Thursday, May 2, 2019. Participating restaurants will donate a portion of the proceeds made at their establishments on May 2 to a fund aimed at doubling the FBI's $1 million reward.

Since November launch the coalition partners have been organizing and planning the May 2 event which currently has 21 restaurants in 5 states and the District of Columbia participating. At the press conference on March 8, International Women's Day, the Free Austin Tice Coalition will make a major announcement – the addition of an influential new partner, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. The national association of more than 1,000 women restaurant owners and chefs from across the country will join existing partners: the National Press Club, The Washington Post, McClatchy, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, and Georgetown University.