WASHINGTON – From July 26 to August 4, 2024, the 12th annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival will be held on Capitol Hill and Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.; ACORN 8 is proud to partner with American University to host the award-winning festival this year. The theme for the event is "Media Matters—Whistleblowers, Investigative Journalists & Enterprise Reporting." The speakers and panel presentations will generally reflect this idea.

“ACORN 8 was the first NGO to promote National Whistleblower Appreciation Day by hosting the Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights on Capitol Hill, that focused on whistleblower policy and legislation over a decade ago” says summit Co-Founder and AU SOC Alumni, Michael McCray. “This year, we are pleased to introduce National Whistleblower Appreciation to an entire new audience—the American University SOC community; through the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, which highlights whistleblowers in journalism, investigative reporting and documentary or narrative filmmaking.”

Professor Emeritus Randall Blair, Director (retired) of the Producing Film, Television & Video Program said, “the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival is a great example for our students because whistleblowers are essential to journalism and documentaries. After all the motto for the A.U. School of Communications is Media That Matters.”