Press Release

NAHJ Honors the Best of 2006

Media Contact: Lisa Goodnight, (202) 662-1274

Washington, D.C. – Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor who helped spearhead a grassroots campaign for meaningful inclusion of Latinos in the upcoming Ken Burns’ documentary titled THE WAR, and Maria Burns Ortiz, a college soccer columnist with ESPN.com and one of the newer Latino voices in the country’s newsrooms, are among those to receive the prestigious ñ Awards next month from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Rivas-Rodriguez, from the University of Texas at Austin, and Burns Ortiz will receive the Leadership Award and the Emerging Journalist of the Year Award, respectively.

Maria Burns Ortiz

Rebecca Aguilar

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez

Dianne Solis

Gary Coronado

Others honored with ñ Awards include Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News for her thoughtful and sincere coverage of immigration, Gary Coronado of The Palm Beach Post for his stunning photographs chronicling the physical risks Central Americans take jumping trains to go north and enter the U.S., and Rebecca Aguilar of KDFW-TV Fox 4 in Dallas for her reporting work that gives a voice to those who typically don’t have one in the media. They will receive the Frank del Olmo Print Journalist of the Year Award, the Photojournalist of the Year Award and the Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award, respectively.

All the ñ Award recipients and winners in 14 other categories will be honored at the 22nd Annual Noche de Triunfos Journalism Awards Gala on Oct. 4 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., NAHJ’s signature event during Hispanic Heritage month. Gloria Campos Brown, news anchor at WFAA-TV Dallas, the evening’s honorary gala chair, and master of ceremonies Antonio Mora, anchor at CBS 2 News Chicago, will host the event attended by journalists, Latino leaders and the community at large.

The work honored with the Journalism Awards that evening range from an editor’s impassioned defense of undocumented immigrants in the deep South in his commentary to a documentary investigating California’s rural gangs and their devastating effect on Latino families.

The award-winning work also chronicled the emotional journey of a woman diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer during her fifth month of pregnancy, investigated the little-known, yet incredible story on the U.S. military’s contingency plans to invade Mexico, and descriptively narrates in literary style a woman’s story of sexual violence on both sides of the border and the forced silence of undocumented abuse victims who have little hope of finding justice.

“Immigration was a big issue in 2006 and in our journalism awards it shows,” said Iván Román, NAHJ’s executive director. “Much of the winning coverage went way beyond the huge immigration marches to deeply explore other aspects of the debate and tell simply heart-wrenching stories conveying much of the emotion with such wonderful writing that as journalists, they make us proud. It’s bound to be an inspiring evening.”

The five ñ Awards honor journalists for their professional achievements and their leadership in bringing greater awareness to issues affecting the Latino community, while NAHJ’s Journalism Awards are given out to honor Latino journalists for excellence in their specialized fields of work or to any journalist, regardless of ethnicity, for their outstanding coverage of the Latino community.

The gala’s presenters include Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, Gilbert Bailón, publisher and editor of Al Día (Dallas) and current president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Maureen Bunyan, anchor of WJLA-TV in Washington, Miguel Almaguer, a reporter with WRC-TV in Washington, and Renay San Miguel, senior vice-president/senior media strategist with Weber Shandwick/WCTV public relations firm and former anchor of CNN Headline News.

For information on purchasing tables, tickets or other sponsorship opportunities, please contact Azuree Salazar, NAHJ Development Director, at (202) 662-7482 or asalazar@nahj.org. The deadline to confirm a sponsorship option is Monday, September 24, 2007. Sponsors to date include: Freddie Mac, Chrysler, Continental Airlines, Hearst Newspapers, State Farm Insurance, Disney, Harrah’s Entertainment, Prudential Financial, Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., Univision Communications and Western Union.

For more information about all the winners and winning entries, please go to 2007 ñ and Journalism Award Winners.