Press Release

Formerly Jailed Cuban Journalist to Keynote NAHJ Banquet

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

Washington, DC – Cuban journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, one of 23 journalists jailed in Cuba during a crackdown on press freedom five years ago and a recipient of major international prizes for journalism and literature, will deliver the keynote speech at the 19th Annual NAHJ Scholarship Banquet in New York City.

In light of recent news in Cuba, Vázquez Portal will share his insight into the plight of nearly two dozen Cuban journalists still behind bars during this year’s annual gala to raise funds for the Rubén Salazar Scholarship Fund. The gala will be held Thursday, March 13, 2008 at the Hilton New York in Manhattan.

The Cuban journalists arrested in March 2003 in the crackdown known as “the black springtime” were summarily sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years. Vázquez was released after staging two hunger strikes and spending more than a year and four months in cells that often had nothing more than an old, ripped mattress, mosquitos and rats.

Nineteen of those jailed in the crackdown, along with three other journalists and writers, remain in prison in Cuba, the world’s second largest jailer of journalists after China.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with 107 Latin American journalists and writers, called on former Cuban President Fidel Castro to free the journalists in March 2005, the second anniversary of the mass arrests.

Soledad O'Brien

“This repression against some of our colleagues in Cuba should be cause for deep concern among Hispanic journalists and all journalists in the United States," said NAHJ Executive Director Iván Román. “As believers in freedom of the press, we must stand with our brothers behind bars and call for their release.”

John Quiñones

ABC’s Primetime co-anchor John Quiñones and CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, both longtime supporters of NAHJ, will serve as the banquet chair and mistress of ceremonies, respectively.

On that special evening, NAHJ will also pay tribute to Rubén Salazar for being honored by the U.S. Postal Service's “American Journalists” series with a commemorative stamp that will go on sale in April. Olga Briseño, director of the University of Arizona College of Humanities Media, Democracy & Policy Initiative, will also be in attendance to talk about the work her group did to make the stamp a reality.

Salazar was killed by a tear-gas projectile fired by a deputy sheriff into a bar in East Los Angeles while interviewing people who had just attended a Chicano Anti-Vietnam War Moratorium rally. No one was ever charged with the crime.

A columnist for the Los Angeles Times and news director for the Spanish-language TV station KMEX, Salazar was the first Mexican-American journalist to have a major voice in the mainstream news media. For journalists of color, Salazar is a symbol of the need to push for diversity in the mainstream media and accurate coverage of Latino issues.

To date, NAHJ has awarded more than $1.4 million in scholarships to 525 promising students pursuing careers in journalism.

Vázquez joins a distinguished group of past keynote speakers at the annual banquet that includes New Mexico Governor and recent presidential candidate Bill Richardson, Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderón, NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw, PBS Senior Correspondent Ray Suarez, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, and CNN Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.