Press Release
May 27, 2005
LA Mayor Elect Antonio Villaraigosa, Actor John Leguizamo Headline NAHJ's 23rd Annual Convention June 15-18
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| Antonio Villaraigosa
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Washington — The National Association of Hispanic Journalists will host "A Conversation with Antonio Villaraigosa," the mayor-elect of Los Angeles to open the NAHJ 23rd Annual Convention and Media & Career Expo on June 15-18 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Villaraigosa will take part in the opening plenary session on Wednesday, June 15 from 6 - 7:30 p.m. at the beautiful Bass Performance Hall in downtown Fort Worth and discuss historic victory, its significance for the Latino community, and the goals for his upcoming administration.
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| John Leguizamo
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Actor John Leguizamo headlines a June 17 panel discussion on two films about Latin America, Secuestro Express and Crónicas, which will be released this summer. Leguizamo, who stars in Crónicas, will be joined by the directors and producers of each film.
With more than 2,000 journalists and media executives expected to be in attendance, the NAHJ convention is the largest annual gathering of Hispanic journalists in the country. Most of the convention activities will take place at the Fort Worth Convention Center, including on-site registration that will begin on June 15. Convention events are open to registrants only. For more information about the convention or NAHJ, visit the association's Web site at www.nahj.org.
In addition, the convention will feature Latin American journalists who will speak about surviving jail, assassination attempts and other types of repression for courageously doing their jobs, and some of their colleagues will also discuss innovative ways they used to uncover corruption in their countries.
Journalists in the U.S. who face or served jail time for refusing to reveal their sources will offer their views on recent attacks on the First Amendment, and relatives of victims, journalists and activists focusing on the 400 unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, over the past 10 years will detail this humanitarian crisis and issue a call to action.
Among the highlights of this year's convention include:
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| Maria Elena Salinas
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Univision's Maria Elena Salinas will moderate a panel that brings together Adela Navarro Bello, editor of the ZETA weekly in Tijuana, Mexico, and radio commentator Marielos Monzón of Guatemala, to discuss surviving assassination attempts while addressing the growing number of attacks against journalists in Latin America.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who faces jail time for refusing to disclose a confidential source, and television reporter Jim Taricani, sentenced to house arrest for not disclosing a source during a government investigation, will speak about the dangerous times ahead for journalists in the United States.
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| Tony Ridder
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Knight Ridder President and CEO Tony Ridder will join colleagues to offer their view of the future of the news industry in a discussion moderated by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for PBS' The NewsHour.
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| Amy Goodman
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Others, including Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, will detail their struggle encased in the country's current media reform movement. We will hear from officials from Mexico, Amnesty International, and a mother whose daughter was one of the more than 400 women killed in Ciudad Juárez over the past 10 years.
A panel of veteran journalists, moderated by ABC's John Quiñones, will address print, broadcast and cable news coverage of immigration.
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| John Quiñones
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Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn how to move up the management ranks, discuss the educational impact of No Child Left Behind act and examine the portrayal of gays and lesbians on Spanish-language television.
The ESPN-sponsored sports breakfast will bring together Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Olympic speed skater Jennifer Rodriguez, along with other sports figures, to discuss the image of Latinos in sports.
Attendees will also have the chance to take part in an eight-hour intensive training session on improving coverage of immigration during a time of heightened homeland security. Health experts will sound the call to action and provide the latest information of HIV/AIDS and obesity in the Latino community.
The Efe News Agency's Copy Chief Alberto Gómez Font will offer four hours of copy editing tips on how to avoid the most common mistakes when writing in Spanish, followed by an intensive writing workshop by Associated Press' Ricardo Reif.
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| Esmeralda Santiago
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Writers Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman, and Francisco Goldman, author of The Divine Husband, share their experiences on writing from their roots.
For information about the convention, including registration and housing, visit the association's Web site at www.nahj.org or call 202-662-7145.
Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our 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 2,300 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media.
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