NEW PRESIDENT:

New York Daily News columnist Juan González was elected president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists during the association's 20th annual convention in San Diego, June 12-15.
He defeated -- by 203 to 146 -- NAHJ's vice president for print Marilyn Garateix, education editor at the Boston Globe.

González is an NAHJ founder and co-founder of UNITY: Journalists of Color.

His campaign was built on a platform that the NAHJ must do more to address the overall decline in U.S. journalism if it hopes to improve the industry's record of hiring Latino journalists and improved coverage of the Latino community.

Also elected to two-year terms were: Arizona Daily Star business writer Jonathan Higuera, vice president-print; Art Rascón, anchor/reporter for KTRK-TV in Houston, vice president-broadcast; Javier Aldape, publisher for La Estrella in Fort Worth, financial officer; San Jose Mercury News race and demographics editor Anne Vásquez, secretary; Michele Salcedo, assistant news editor for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, general at-large officer; Liza Gross, executive managing editor of El Nuevo Día in San Juan, P.R., Spanish-language at-large officer; John García, vice president for content and programming online for NBC, at-large online officer; and Rosa Ramírez, a student at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and intern at Hispanic Link News Service, at-large student representative.

HALL OF FAME:

The NAHJ inducted Frank del Olmo, Felíx Gutiérrez, Paul Espinosa and Frank Sotomayor into its Hall of Fame during a June 13 luncheon ceremony.

The Hall of Fame honors journalists whose long-term contributions, either nationally or locally, have resulted in a greater number of Latinos entering the journalism profession or improved coverage of the Latino community.

Espinosa is an independent TV producer, writer and director. Gutiérrez is an author, educator and a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Journalism at the University of Southern California. Del Olmo is an associate editor with the Los Angeles Times and Frank Sotomayor is an assistant METPRO director and hiring editor, Los Angeles Times

The Eagle Tribune in North Andover, Mass., won NAHJ's Guillermo Martínez-Márquez award for "Building Bridges," a project that examined the community's racial and ethnic attitudes as the population of the city changed from majority white to majority Latino.

FCC EEO HEARING:

The Federal Communications Commission held June 24 its first hearing since 1973 on the agency's equal employment regulations It listened to disparate views on the importance of having EEO rules that would create greater diversity in the broadcast industry.
Texas State Broadcast Association executive director Ann Arnold stated there has been no evidence of discrimination since the EEO rules were declared unconstitutional in 1998. She added that victims of discrimination could still file a complaint with the EEOC.

Gregory Hessinger, national executive director of AFTRA, stated that complying with the EEO rules is not a top priority for many media executives because they are under enormous pressure to increase their companies' profit margins and unable to devote enough time and resources to addressing diversity issues. As a result, more insular hiring practices have returned.

Last December, the FCC proposed new rules that called on broadcasters to disseminate widely information about job openings.