Category Archives: Media Advocacy

NAHJ Calls on Media to Diversify Journalists Covering Sports

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May 17, 2011

NAHJ Calls on Media to Diversify Journalists Covering Sports

Bucking Demographic Trends, Results of APSE Survey No Surprise

In response to a recent survey of the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) outlets that found that number of Latinos in print and online sports media has dropped in the last two years, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is calling on media organizations to review hiring practices and to diversify their sports departments.

The “APSE Race and Gender Report Card,” a survey conducted every other year by The Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sport, found that the number of overall Latino male sports journalists fell from 134 to 92 in 2010.

Meanwhile, the number of Latina sports journalists dropped from 16 to a mere 7 in the same two-year span.

Overall, the percentage of Latinos in sports departments remained stagnant making up around 3 percent of sports newsrooms that participated in the survey. Whites still make up about 87 percent of sports department, the survey said.

NAHJ President Michele Salcedo said the minuscule gains Latinos have made in the newsroom are irrelevant compared with the larger picture–that the number of Latinos eligible to participate in APSE’s survey has plummeted despite an increase in the number of newsrooms surveyed.

“These findings are no surprise for any one of us working in sports media,” said NAHJ Sports Task Force chair Maria Burns Ortiz. “However, this report gives us a tangible assessment of the situation and provides an opportunity to address this issue. Part of that solution is cultivating talent and providing mentoring and guidance.”

Salcedo said the trend is counter to demographic changes in the country. “APSE’s report is a true measure of the appalling erosion of the number of Latinos in sports departments across the country,” said Salcedo. “It is especially striking at a time when there are more Latino players in sports than ever, and as the 2010 census figures peg Latinos as the nation’s largest minority.”

Salcedo and Ortiz said the NAHJ Sports Task Force stands ready to work with newsrooms across platforms to ensure their sports departments better reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of athletes and the nation.

The report surveyed 320 APSE member newspapers and websites, including the overwhelming majority of mid- and major market publications.  That number was up from the 281 outlets surveyed two years ago.

About NAHJ

Founded in 1984, NAHJ’s mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in the nation’s newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation’s largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 1,400 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.

Contact FCC by Dec 14 to prevent discrimination on the Internet

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You have just one day left to help prevent discrimination and redlining on the Internet!

After more than a year of waffling on Net Neutrality, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced plans to issue weak regulations that give phone and cable companies just about everything they wanted, and leave Internet users with almost nothing.

Genachowski calls his plan Net Neutrality. But it’s fake. It doesn’t live up to President Obama’s pledge to create lasting and enforceable Net Neutrality protections or to Genachowski’s own promises to deliver for the president.

This is a huge betrayal. But we still have time to fix Genachowski’s toothless compromise rule before it goes to a vote on Dec. 21.

FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps have been unwavering champions for Net Neutrality. They now hold the power of their majority votes to fix the chairman’s bad rule. Under the FCC’s sunshine rules, the public has until 5 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, December 14 to send letters, emails, make phone calls or initiate any contact with FCC commissioners.

They need to hear from you that Genachowski’s fake Net Neutrality plan fails on so many fronts:

1) It fails to protect Net Neutrality for people who access the Internet using wireless devices. There is only one Internet: Users must be free to access any legal website, service or application whether they’re at home or using a mobile phone. This protection becomes even more important for many Latinos, whose only access to the Internet is through their mobile phones.

2) It fails to prevent new “paid prioritization” schemes planned by industry. We can’t let telecom companies charge steep tolls to speed up the sites and services of a few media giants, putting them on Internet express lanes, while slowing down everyone else onto the proverbial “dirt road”.

3) It fails to close massive loopholes. The FCC can’t let internet service providers build a new “private Internet” under the guise of “specialized services” that would stifle competition and innovation.

4) It fails to restore the FCC’s authority, which was stripped away during a Bush-era frenzy of deregulation. If the FCC doesn’t “reclassify” its broadband authority under Title II of the Communications Act, it risks making Net Neutrality rules that will be tossed out in court right away.

You can call or email their Copps’ and Clyburn’s offices at the following contact info. You can use the letter below as a draft template that you can email to the commissioners.

Commissioner Clyburn
Phone: 202 418-2100
Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov

Commisioner Copps
Phone: 202 418-2000
Michael.Copps@fcc.gov

NAHJ and UNITY: Journalists of Color and more than 100 other organizations demand strong net neutrality rules to protect a free and open internet and prevent discrimination against those who can’t pay gatekeepers for preferential treatment. We want to keep a more even playing field for our communities to tell our stories, create and develop businesses, and seize opportunities through education.

Letter signed by NAHJ and more than 80 groups demanding changes in current proposal
For column from Free Press calling proposal fake net neutrality, click here
For recent New York Times story on Genachowski’s proposal, click here

Aside from the phone calls and emails you make, NAHJ has joined the Can-You-Hear-Us-Now-A-Thon in which representatives of dozens of groups are delivering 50,000 signatures to a petition to the FCC every hour Monday and Tuesday, a petition delivery marathon of 2 million people who want stronger net neutrality rules. Signatures are still coming in and they are trying to reach 3 million signatures. We will be delivering signatures Tuesday at 1 p.m. and you can click on checking in on the page to see videos of the marathon and what the groups are saying about it.

So please remember to send a quick email or make a quick phone call, join the chorus, and urge the commissioners to stay strong. You have until 5pm est. Tuesday, December 14 to do it. We demand REAL net neutrality now!

Sincerely,
Iván Román
NAHJ Executive Director
iroman@nahj.org

####

Draft of template letter:

Dear Commissioners Copps and Clyburn (CC Chairman Julius Genachowski),  

As one of the thousands of journalists and people who believe a free and open internet is essential to the free flow of news and information, I urge you to stay strong and push for changes in the proposed rules before you to ensure real net neutrality.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed open Internet rules don’t meet any acceptable standard of real net neutrality, including President Barack Obama’s. As the President has stated before, “Because most Americans only have a choice of only one or two broadband carriers, carriers are tempted to impose a toll charge on content and services, discriminating against websites that are unwilling to pay for equal treatment. This could create a two-tier Internet in which websites with the best relationships with network providers can get the fastest access to consumers, while all competing websites remain in a slower lane.”

We know that is exactly what will happen. The carriers have stated their true intentions. We should not allow gatekeepers to discriminate in this manner and institute the redlining of our communities on the Internet, as has happened with virtually every medium in the past. Unless the proposed rules are changed significantly, I urge you not to support them when you vote on Dec. 21.

First, the rules need to extend full Net Neutrality protections to both wired and wireless Internet users.

Second, they must have stronger language to prohibit “paid prioritization” schemes, which give phone and cable companies the power to pick winners and losers on the Internet.

Third, they must close massive loopholes for “specialized services” that allow industry to discriminate unfairly online.

Finally, they must ensure that Net Neutrality rests on a secure legal foundation that can withstand a court challenge.

Please continue to stand with me for real Net Neutrality protections and fix these rules before you vote.

NAHJ Condemns Slaying of Photojournalist in Ciudad Juárez

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The National Association of Hispanic Journalists condemns the killing of photojournalist Luis Carlos Santiago and wounding of his colleague, Carlos Manuel Sánchez, of El Diario, a daily newspaper in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Further, NAHJ calls on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to demand a prompt and thorough investigation of the crimes and prosecution of those responsible. 

AP – Relatives of slain photojournalist Luis Carlos Santiago

Santiago was shot and killed in the parking lot of a shopping mall on Thursday during his lunch break, bringing to nine the number of journalists killed in Mexico in 2010. Sánchez was also shot and is in stable condition in a hospital in Ciudad Juárez.

Santiago was an intern at El Diario, but officials at the newspaper said on Thursday that he was days away from signing a contract to become a full-time employee. He had been interning at the newspaper for about six months.

Mexican authorities have not released many details, but the shooters seem to have targeted Santiago and Sanchez as part of an ongoing wave of violence that has plagued Juárez since 2008. Rival drug cartels have fought over control of the city’s trafficking routes, and so far about 6,400 people have been killed.

Front-page editorial in El Diario addressing drug cartels, “What do you want from us?”

Associated Press story on the editorial and its implications

Statement from Latin American and Caribbean journalists at Austin Forum

Reporters in Juárez, a city of about 1.5 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas, said Santiago was an ambitious and talented photojournalist who showed great promise. El Diario has published some of his photographs.

Santiago and Sánchez had just left a photography workshop when they were shot and Santiago killed.

This is the second journalist to be killed in Juárez in the last two years. In November 2008, Armando Rodriguez, a veteran reporter for El Diario, was gunned down at his home. Rodriguez had been threatened several times before he was slain.

These murders underscore the danger that many journalists working in Mexico and along the border face each day in their efforts to inform the public and uncover the truth. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 30 journalists have disappeared or been killed in Mexico since 2006.

CPJ officials are scheduled to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderón next week to discuss threats against journalists. NAHJ urges President Calderón to heed the concerns of journalists and redouble his efforts to ensure the safety of reporters in his country. We will judge commitment to freedom of the press and the public’s right to know by his response.

NAHJ also joins local journalism organizations in their call for law enforcement to launch an earnest investigation and to bring justice for the families of Santiago and Sánchez.

“We strongly urge the authorities to work diligently to find those responsible for this crime,” said Gustavo Reveles Acosta, President of the El Paso Press Club and NAHJ’s Vice President for Print. “Doing so would send a strong message that the murder of journalists is not condoned.”

NAHJ also continues to express its solidarity with reporters on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border who continue to risk their lives to chronicle the violence that has crippled thousands of families in the United States and Mexico.