News Leaders Association Cites Financial Pressures
Israelis Targeted Press Vehicle, Reporters Find
T.J. Holmes, Amy Robach Make Deal for Podcast
‘Shut Up’ Puts Focus on N.C. Congress Member
Birmingham Convention Paid Off for City, NABJ
Medical Ailments Claim Ohio Anchor Mike Jackson
Short Takes: Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and Hugh Hewitt; Lester Holt’s Rough Cuts band; two Black women in CBS anchor chair; 2024 Latina Leadership Program; WBEZ and Sun-Times Oath Keepers investigation; net neutrality; Ta-Nehisi Coates and prison bachelors degree program; Charlie LeDuff; Walter Smith Randolph;
Joe Davidson and Bernardine Watson; Damian Lillard and ESPN video; L.A. Times equity initiative; Tim Tooten; Robin Kwong; Mara Gay, Black Americans and swimming; “‘Black History: Unveiled” worldwide podcast; racism toward Black people in Europe;
Meta and human rights abuses in Ethiopia; surprising reason behind attacks on journalists in Mexico; international monetary policy, climate change and Barbados; Latin American journalism diversity conference; surveillance of journalists under Brazil’s Bolsonaro; digitizing Nigeria’s newspapers since 1960; suspension in Namibia; anti-press statements by Chile’s president; Paraguayan journalist wants asylum; supporting independent journalism in Latin America; raids by Indian government.
Updated Nov. 1
Homepage photo: The 2021 faculty cohort of the News Leaders Association’s Emerging Leaders Program
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News Leaders Association Cites Financial Pressures
The News Leaders Association, the leading journalism organization for news editors and whose predecessor group for more than four decades monitored diversity progress at newspapers through its annual survey, is asking members whether it should call it quits.
On Monday, the NLA Board approved ballot language for NLA’s members to vote in mid-November to dissolve NLA by June 2024.
“NLA was formed in late 2019 as a result of the merger of two iconic organizations – the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors. From the beginning, the new NLA has faced obstacles, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the vast challenges facing the news industry and the financial markets. These headwinds created a perfect storm, making it difficult for NLA to expand and flourish.”
Moreover, Gerber said, “The NLA board also uniquely faced a combination of issues that forced the organization to look for new homes for its long standing programs. Those issues included a drop in the value of the organization’s endowments and shrinking newsroom budgets that made it difficult for members to attend leadership conferences – historically a large source of NLA’s revenue. Economically, it is very difficult for these organizations to continue even in the face of widespread need and support.”
Gerber added, “The board believes the organization’s goals — empowering journalists with the training, support and networks they need to lead diverse, sustainable newsrooms — is more important than ever. With that mission in mind, we ask for your vote in support of dissolving NLA and continuing its work through other respected non-profit journalism organizations. . . .”
In a q-and-a at the end of the message, Gerber, who is editor of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press, asked, “What will happen to the diversity survey?”
Her answer: “NLA and its members are universally committed to building diverse newsrooms that reflect the communities we serve. However, as pressure grew to prioritize diverse newsrooms, several large media companies became increasingly reluctant to share the demographic information of their newsrooms, and NLA did not have the resources to find alternative ways to obtain this information. The NLA Board is optimistic that handing the annual diversity survey to a partner organization will continue this critical work.”
Gerber also said, “We are currently working with other organizations to ensure that premier NLA training programs such as the Emerging Leaders Institute for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and our annual Sunshine Week continue.” The latter celebrates the First Amendment.
The News Leaders Association was formed in a merger of ASNE, founded in 1922 as the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and APME, founded in 1931. NLA also absorbed the Association of Opinion Journalists, formerly the National Conference of Editorial Writers, founded in 1947.
In 2017, in one of its final events before the merger, ASNE marked the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission report on the causes of the urban uprisings of 1967. That report famously said, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal,” and criticized the press for writing and reporting “from the standpoint of a white man’s world.”
On the 2017 convention panel were veteran Black journalists Al Fitzpatrick, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Paul Delaney and Dorothy Butler Gilliam, with this columnist moderating.
In preparation for the panel, Fitzpatrick, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, retired editor of the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal and former vice president for diversity of the now-defunct Knight Ridder Co., described how ASNE’s diversity goals were created.
“Jay Harris, the late Bob Maynard and I served on committee for ASNE to come up with diversity goals for ASNE,” Fitzpatrick said in his lightly edited message. “We met with many editors from the South and Midwest at the University of Mississippi. I don’t remember the exact year but it was in the late 1970s.
“During the first half of the meeting, nothing was accomplished. Jay, Bob and I decided at the lunch break that we were not going to accomplish anything unless we took over the meeting. Some of the editors were upset but we had the group set up goals for diversity with a goal of equality by the year 2000.
“We gave ASNE a goals report, written by Jay Harris each year.
“Our first report indicated that ASNE had about 2.5 to 3 percent minorities. Each year the needle seldom moved.
“ASNE never achieved the goals.
“There was plenty of lip service from the editors and ASNE but the goals were never realized. ASNE has the same attitude as our companies and corporations: Promote diversity but do very little to promote equality and fairness.”
When the News Leaders Association canceled its 2020 conference in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Rick Edmunds wrote for the Poynter Institute, “The newsroom diversity census, long a hallmark of ASNE’s public-facing programs, was a well-intended but not wildly successful attempt to get better minority representation in newsrooms.
“In its heyday, many organizations agreed to publish benchmark numbers for individual papers as an incentive to improve over time. Gannett, in particular, insisted that editors show progress as part of their job reviews and bonuses.
“The yearly reports from hundreds of papers also provided a best estimate of how many news professionals were working at newspapers, a figure that has drastically declined from a high of around 56,900 in 1990.
“The employment total came to be seen as a negative, better left unreported. And gains in the percentage of minorities year-to-year stalled out. . . .”
As Janine Jackson would write in 2018, “The group called for the re-ignition of Kerner’s demands, setting a goal of minority employment in newspapers equal to their proportion of the country’s population by the year 2000.
“By 1998, it was clear this was nowhere close to happening — Black people were 13.3 percent of the population and still just 5.4 percent of newsroom employees — and the goal was pushed to 2025.
“In 2017, ASNE found just 5.6 percent of newsroom employees were Black, and 4.6 percent of newsroom leaders. Black people were just 5 percent of TV news directors in 2016, according to the Radio, Television, Digital Association, just 3.1 percent of radio news directors. Existing research suggests that ‘new’ media are not new in this regard.”
In fairness, ASNE said its 2000 goal of matching the percentage of people of color in newsrooms with that of the general population was aspirational. It then created another aspirational date for parity, 2025. Meanwhile, it emphasized leadership training, and created awards encouraging diversity reporting, named after such advocates as the late Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and Robert G. McGruder, late editor of the Detroit Free Press.
In addition, the News Leaders Association picked up the Barry Bingham Sr. Award, originating with the National Conference of Editorial Writers, honoring the educator who has done the most to promote diversity.
In her letter to members, Gerber put a positive spin on the development. “What does NLA’s demise say about journalism/editorial leadership?” she asked.
Her answer: “One key reason we believe NLA can make this move is that other journalism organizations are already stepping up to offer the services we were working on providing. In that way, it’s not about the demise of the profession, but an ecosystem that has grown to fill these needs.”
- Journal-isms: Diversity Rises for Broadcast Journalists but . . . (scroll down) (Nov. 24, 2022)
- Journal-isms: Gannett Gets Bolder on Diversity (Aug. 25, 2020)
- Katherine Hutt Scott and Barbara DeLollis, Harvard Business School: Beyond the ‘Business Case’ in DEI: 6 Steps Toward Meaningful Change
“The initial findings of the investigation show that the reporters were not collateral victims of the shooting. One of their vehicles, marked ‘press,’ was targeted, and it was also clear that the group stationed next to it was journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. (Credit: Reporters Without Borders/YouTube)
Israelis Targeted Press Vehicle, Reporters Find
“What happened on the border between Israel and Lebanon on Friday 13 October when a bombing raid claimed the life of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah?” the press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders reported Sunday, disclosing the results of its investigation.
Separately, the group announced Wednesday it “has filed a complaint for war crimes committed against Palestinian journalists in Gaza – the third such complaint since 2018 – and against an Israeli journalist, killed and wounded in the course of their work. These reporters were the victims of attacks amounting – at the very least – to war crimes justifying an investigation by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Filed with the office of the ICC prosecutor on 31 October, RSF’s complaint details the cases of nine journalists killed in the course of their work since 7 October and two others who were wounded, also in the course of their work. It also cites the deliberate, total or partial, destruction of the premises of more than 50 media outlets in Gaza. . . .”
In reporting on its investigation, RSF (its French acronym) said, “Two strikes of different intensity, about thirty seconds apart, hit the exact spot where seven journalists were standing. They had set up in this area to cover the exchange of fire between Hezbollah forces and the Israeli army. The first strike killed Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdallah and seriously injured Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Christina Assi, while the second blew up the Al Jazeera vehicle in the immediate vicinity, injuring several of their colleagues.
“Blamed for the incident by various witnesses, the Israeli army immediately declared that it was “sorry” and that it was “looking into it.” . A week after the events, RSF is reconstructing what may have happened between 4.45pm, the time of the first images collected, and around 6pm, the time of the death of Issam Abdallah, aged 37, in Alma el-Chaab, southern Lebanon. The sources include videos filmed at the very moment of the tragedy and ballistic analysts commissioned by RSF.”
Among the group’s conclusions:
“Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting.
“It is unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants, especially as they were not hiding: in order to have a clear field of vision, they had been in the open for more than an hour, on the top of a hill. They were wearing helmets and bullet-proof waistcoats marked “press”. Their car was also identified as “press” thanks to a marking on the roof, according to witnesses. . . .” (Added Nov. 1)
T.J. Holmes, Amy Robach Make Deal for Podcast
“Former ABC News anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes have launched a new podcast in partnership with iHeartMedia,” Caitlin Huston reported Wednesday for the Hollywood Reporter.
“The podcast, titled Amy & T.J., will see the two in conversation about current events, pop culture and more. In addition to hosting and executive producing the podcast, Robach and Holmes will also work on a full slate of upcoming programming at iHeartPodcasts.
“The news comes after Robach and Holmes left ABC News in January 2023 after their romantic relationship became public and ABC conducted an investigation into whether it violated internal policies. The two, who had been married to other partners, had been pulled from the air in December 2022, as the network decided on next steps. . . .”
Dory Jackson added for People magazine, “In a new Instagram post that they jointly shared on Wednesday, the two former GMA3: What You Need to Know anchors smiled from ear to ear as they held each other close. Holmes’ arm was wrapped tightly around Robach, who placed her hand on his shoulder.
” ‘How’s this for instagram official? #silentnomore 🎤,’ the caption began.
“Robach, 50, and Holmes, 46, then announced that they were teaming up for an all-new podcast. ‘ “Amy & T.J.” ‘ December 5th,” they continued. ‘Listen on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard. @amyandtjpodcast.’ “
Jonah Valdez reported Oct. 12 for the Los Angeles Times that Holmes and Marilee Fiebig had “reached a divorce settlement agreement nearly one year after news surfaced of Holmes’ alleged affair. . . . In March, Robach followed Holmes and filed for divorce from actor Andrew Shue after 13 years of marriage.” (Added Nov. 1)
.
‘Shut Up’ Puts Focus on N.C. Congress Member
“Reporters rallied behind ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott (pictured, below) after the hostility she encountered for trying to ask Republican House Speaker-Designee Mike Johnson (R-LA) about his election denialism,” as Mediaite reported, with the National Association of Black Journalists weighing in on Sunday.
But for local journalists watching the chief offender — Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who yelled “Shut up” — Foxx was the issue.
“The reporter must have hit a nerve,” columnist Paige Masten wrote Wednesday in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. “Republicans don’t want to talk about their behavior in 2020, because they know it was unacceptable. They refuse to be held accountable for it.
“The entire exchange was frighteningly dystopian, but it encapsulates exactly what today’s Republican Party has become. Juvenile and contemptuous, sneering and laughing about the fact that they are single-handedly dismantling democracy. They just can’t take anything seriously.”
In the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, Scott Sexton recapped Thursday, “In a near viral clip that circulated widely across the Twitter-sphere and national media, we see Rep. Foxx shouting ‘Shut Up! Shut Up!’ at a reporter attempting to ask now Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a simple question.
“ ‘Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the effort to overturn the 2020 election results …’ the reporter began.
“He shook his head indicating that the soon to be second in line to the presidency would not answer for his attempts to undermine democracy.
“And Foxx helpfully added her shrill two-cents.
“How hard is it to say the obvious — that the 2020 election was legitimate? Three years into a new administration?
“Apparently if you don’t like being asked about, say, supporting insurrection and mindlessly repeating lies about a ‘stolen’ election — which more than 60 judges have ruled are baseless — hissing and shouting down anyone with the temerity to speak truth to power is the way to go. . . .”
In Charlotte, his column ran under the headline, “At 80, Virginia Foxx acts childish in Congress. Does the GOP have any grown-ups?”
“Tim Scott, the junior senator from South Carolina, took to the Republican primary debate stage and bizarrely suggested that Black people had it harder under Great Society programs than slavery. Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, took to Fox News and called for the wiping out of an entire people, a population of more than two million, half of whom are children. I guess Foxx, who represents the 5th District of North Carolina, didn’t want to be left out, wanted to prove she could sound as idiotic as the gentleman south of the Tar Heel border.”
Bailey saw something bigger at play. “Her party has been busy trying to craft a political map in North Carolina that would all but guarantee Republicans would retain a stranglehold on power in the state even if they can’t convince a majority of us to vote for them. They treat this precious place like a game, something to toy around with. But there’s nothing funny about what’s happening. We need grownups at the wheel during a time like this. And yet we repeatedly choose overgrown children to lead us. . . .”
- Mary C. Curtis, Roll Call: Speaker mayhem: When the rules are rigged, it breeds chaos
- Renée Graham, Boston Globe: How the Jan. 6 insurrectionists won
- LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times: Republican hate for LGBTQ+ people fueled Mike Johnson’s rise to be House speaker
- Ja’han Jones, MSNBC: Black journalists group condemns Republicans who jeered ABC News reporter
- Asher Notheis, Washington Examiner: The View hosts attack GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx over telling reporter to ‘shut up’
- Trudy Ring, The Advocate: Who Is Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Antigay, Conspiracy-Loving, Trump Supporter?
Birmingham Convention Paid Off for City, NABJ
The National Association of Black Journalists’ August convention in Birmingham, Ala., ended with a surplus of $1,066,984.87, treasurer Jasmine Styles announced at Saturday’s NABJ board meeting in Philadelphia; while Michael Gunn, a vice president of the Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau, confirmed that the presence of NABJ boosted the Birmingham economy by $7.5 million.
Gunn told Journal-isms that the convention ranked among the top 10 revenue grossers among such events held in the city, not least because journalists “are going to have a good time,” while many of Birmingham’s other conventions are held by faith-based groups, whose priorities differ. The city had contributed $150,000 toward the convention. Economic impact figures are calculated by the number of hotel rooms sold and other indicators, Gunn said.
NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry pointed to the convention success as a reason the organization “cannot let our guards down” regarding finances, pointing to the Society of Professional Journalists, which canceled its 2024 convention, with a candidate sending a notice to members with “SPJ is Broke” as the subject line. SPJ relies more on membership revenue than does NABJ, Berry said.
Three of the association’s founders — Joe Davidson, Allison Davis and Sandra Long Weaver — attended the meeting to present ideas for the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration in Cleveland in 2025, with planning underway even as NABJ makes arrangements to be in Chicago for 2024.
About 80 people attended a reception for the new NABJ-Philadelphia chapter Friday night at the Philadelphia Inquirer building, Melanie Burney, an Inquirer reporter and vice president of the new group, told Journal-isms.
- Journal-isms: Birmingham’s Story Resonates With NABJ (Aug. 6)
Medical Ailments Claim Ohio Anchor Mike Jackson
“WCMH-TV NBC4 anchor Mike Jackson died Friday after a battle with cancer,” Bethany Bruner reported Sunday for Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch. “He was 66 years old.
“Jackson worked in broadcast for more than 40 years, including 25 years on the air at NBC4, but had not been on the air since 2019 when he had a stroke.
“At the time of the stroke, Jackson anchored the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news for NBC4, and did a segment called ‘Better Call Jackson.’
“In November 2022, Jackson announced he had laryngeal cancer and was unable to speak. Treatment for the cancer required the removal of his throat box, as well as radiation treatment. . . .”
Short Takes
- “NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker will moderate the next Republican debate along with Hugh Hewitt, host on the Salem Radio Network,‘ Ted Johnson reported Wednesday for Deadline. “The lineup for the Nov. 8 event was announced on Nightly News this evening. The debate will air from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET from the Adrianne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami-Dade County. It’s the third Republican debate this cycle, but front runner Donald Trump is not expected to attend. . . .”
- . . . “Lester Holt, NBC Nightly News anchor, plays a free performance with his rock band the Rough Cuts in New York on Sunday, December 3,” Michael Malone reported Oct. 21 for Broadcasting & Cable. “The band plays Hill Country Barbecue Market in the Flatiron District and goes on at 7 p.m. Lester Holt and the Rough Cuts was founded during a holiday party for Dateline staff in 2017. Holt plays the bass guitar. The band plays classic rock and more modern fare. . . .”
- The Oct. 26 edition of the “CBS Evening News” featured two Black women as anchors, a rarity. Jericka Duncan anchored from Lewiston, Maine, site of the fatal mass shooting Oct. 25 of 18 people, and Adriana Diaz, who is also Latina, anchored the rest of the program. Also prominent were Black journalists Jeff Pegues, reporting from Maine, and Nikole Killion, covering the selection of Rep. Michael Johnson, R-La., as House speaker. In January, Duncan began anchoring the Saturday “CBS Weekend News” from Chicago and Duncan on Sundays from New York.
- “I’m thrilled to announce the 2024 Latina Leadership Program, the inaugural initiative of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ new ‘Adelante Academy,’ ” NAHJ President Yvette Cabrera announced Oct. 19. “The program is designed to ensure that Latinas in America’s newsrooms are equipped with the skills and knowledge to ascend into leadership roles, whether they aspire to be editor-in-chief of a newsroom or CEO of a news nonprofit. It will be the first of many programs offered by the NAHJ Adelante Academy, which we created to accelerate the careers of our members. . . .”
- “After WBEZ and the Sun-Times asked questions,” Chicago police said they were opening a new investigation into ties between the police department and the white extremist Oath Keepers, Dan Mihalopoulos, Tom Schuba and Kevin G. Hall reported Oct. 22 in a collaboration of the two news organizations and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Among their findings: “Officials closed a probe into Chicago cops’ ties to the Oath Keepers last year without finding any wrongdoing or even investigating most of the officers linked to the group,” and “Many of the cops on the Oath Keepers’ rolls worked in the Special Operations Section, which was disbanded amid revelations that some members committed brazen robberies and the purported ringleader plotted to murder a colleague.”
- “The Federal Communications Commission officially began its effort to re-establish net neutrality at its monthly meeting today, with a proposed rule prohibiting broadband providers from favoring or throttling certain internet traffic. While it still faces a legal and political battle, the new rule benefits from 8 years of hindsight,” Devin Coldewey reported Oct. 19 for TechCrunch.
- “Author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates will address the first class of incarcerated students in the United States to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 university,” Leah Schroeder reported Oct. 24 for the Daily Northwestern. “The Northwestern Prison Education Program is set to hold its first graduation ceremony on Nov. 15 at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. . . .”
- ‘After roughly two years, Walter Smith Randolph is leaving WNPR where he has been the editor of the station’s investigative reporting team known as: The Accountability Project,” The Laurel in Connecticut reported Oct. 23. Randolph, who is vice president/broadcast of the National Association of Black Journalists, “is returning to his childhood home of New York City where he will be an executive producer with WCBS-TV focused on investigative reporting.” In a farewell commentary Oct. 24, Smith Randolph wrote for Connecticut Public Radio, “Two years ago, when I arrived at 1049 Asylum Ave., I was given a mission — launch an investigative unit committed to shining a light on issues across the state while making a big impact and winning a few awards along the way. As I move on from Connecticut Public, I can say mission accomplished — but we’re not done yet. . . .”
- “A kidney swap, a love story and a ray of hope in a memoir: How a newspaper columnist provided support and a new organ for D.C.’s Bernardine Watson,” read the headline on Courtland Milloy’s Oct. 17 Washington Post column. “In her new book, ‘Transplant: A Memoir,’ D.C. resident Bernardine Watson describes a romance that played a huge role in her surviving a pernicious form of kidney disease. The love affair involves a Washington Post colleague — Federal Insider columnist Joe Davidson,” Milloy wrote. (Family photo)
- Mara Gay, a New York Times editorial writer who has written about racial inequities in swimming, was featured in an Oct. 21 “PBS NewsHour” segment in which she noted, “Black Americans, many people know, were not allowed to learn how to read during slavery. Many times they also weren’t allowed to learn how to swim. And that’s because it would have made it easier to escape to freedom. Dogs couldn’t track your scent in water, which was known among enslaved Americans. During segregation you had public pools that were not open to Black Americans. . . .”
- Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company, and Amat Levin, a renowned Swedish journalist and author, are launching their podcast ‘Black History: Unveiled’ worldwide, producing “captivating stories that shine a light on historical events and figures often overshadowed in the history books,” according to an Oct. 18 news release. “In October, Acast is releasing a broad campaign targeting multiple markets — the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France — regions rich in unexplored Black community history and heritage. . . .” The initiative “began as an Instagram account focusing on bite-sized pan-African history four years ago.”
- “Racism towards Black people is growing in Europe, with Germany, Austria and Finland showing the highest rates of discrimination and harassment, a survey of first- and second-generation Black immigrants in 13 EU countries published on Wednesday found,” Francois Murphy reported Oct. 25 for Reuters. “The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), which commissioned the survey and analyzed its findings in a report, said that in the space of six years since the previous study the proportion of respondents who had felt racially discriminated against in the past 12 months had risen by 10 percentage points to 34%.”
- “Meta, the parent company of Facebook, contributed to serious human rights abuses against Ethiopia’s Tigrayan community, Amnesty International said in a new report published today,” the human rights organization said Tuesday. “Amnesty International’s research established that Facebook’s algorithmic systems supercharged the spread of harmful rhetoric targeting the Tigrayan community, while the platform’s content moderation systems failed to detect and respond appropriately to such content. These failures ultimately contributed to the killing of Tigrayan university chemistry Professor Meareg Amare. Amare was killed by a group of men after posts targeting him were posted on Facebook on 3 November 2021. . . .”
- “When, in 2018, Mexican journalist Alejandra Ibarra began [to] build the Defensores de la Democracia [Defenders of Democracy] project, which seeks to preserve and catalog work published by journalists murdered in her country, one of her main concerns was to understand why Mexico was such a violent nation for the press, despite being a democracy with all the protections of the law,” César López Linares reported Oct. 16 for LatAm Journalism Review. In a new book, “Ibarra argues that it is not so much the information journalists disseminate, but the role they play in their community that leads them to be targeted for assassination. One of the patterns that the journalist found is that the journalists killed in recent years in Mexico were mainly local reporters or citizen journalists who held a place of respect in their community. They were able to promote some social participation when they took a stand on the facts. They were also figures who often questioned the powers that be in their town. . . .”
- “ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten brought attention to how international monetary policy and Wall Street’s incentive to generate returns for investors are making it difficult for small, poor Caribbean countries like Barbados to recover economically from the cost of disastrous hurricanes and other effects of climate change,” the Scripps Howard Fund said in honoring the report. Published with The New York Times Magazine, it was cited for “Excellence in Environmental Reporting.” “Lustgarten’s reporting revealed how international monetary policy and Wall Street’s expectations for profitable returns are forcing severe internal budgeting and national spending policies on vulnerable countries that already are trying to recover from damage caused by the intense hurricanes and other environmental challenges attributable to global warming. . . .”
- “The Network for Diversity in Latin American Journalism (Redipe, by its Spanish acronym) held its third free online conference on Oct. 20-21, 2023, with support from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas,” Katherine Pennacchio reported Oct. 24 for LatAm Journalism Review. She also wrote, “Several of the independent media present at the conference agreed on the importance of journalists being trained to address people who have suffered traumatic situations. In many cases, attending journalists felt that by covering diversity issues they end up doing solutions or service journalism. In the case of La Verdad de México [The truth in Mexico], its journalists have become guides for migrants and their families to exercise their rights. . . .”
- On their best day, Fu’ad Lawal and his team of four in Lagos, Nigeria, “scanned 900 pages of newspapers published sometime in the last thirty years. They have uploaded 50,000 pages to their website Archivi.ng, but it is only a small step of a grand ambition,” Alexander Onukwue reported Sunday for Semafor. “Lawal’s goal with Archivi.ng is to digitize every Nigerian newspaper published every day since independence in 1960. It is a history project to provide context for conversations about politics and the economy but also a record of language, culture and mundane aspects of Nigerian life, he says. It formally started in April when the team procured a seven-feet tall overhead scanner after raising $15,000 from donors since 2020. . . .”
- Christof Maletsky, CEO of the state-owned New Era Publication Corp., which publishes Namibia’s daily New Era newspaper, suspended managing editor Johnathan Beukes until Oct. 31, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Oct. 13. The suspension was prompted by an editorial critical of the judiciary, three journalists who saw the suspension letter told the CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
- “The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned and expressed concern over statements made by the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, against the press. The organization warned that discrediting journalists and media outlets can lead to hostile actions when exercised from a position of power,” IAPA announced Friday. “In a public event on October 25, President Boric criticized the press in general and, in particular, made derogatory remarks about the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, and La Segunda. He said, ‘I read the newspapers very little these days. But it’s impressive how they prefer the bad news. I don’t know how those who still read El Mercurio, La Tercera, La Segunda can feel okay afterward because, in truth, it’s as if we live in a hellish country.’ “
- “Vicente Godoy, a Paraguayan journalist from the city of Horqueta, in the eastern region of the country, has requested asylum in another country after receiving death threats, reported the Paraguayan Society of Communicators (SCP, by its Spanish acronym),” LatAm Journalism Review reported Oct. 20. “According to the organization, the threats are related to investigations published by the journalist into possible acts of corruption involving former mayor Jorge Emiliano Urbieta and his brother, congressman Arturo Urbieta, both members of the Colorado Party (ANR). . . . “
- In India, “Earlier this month police in Delhi raided the homes of several prominent journalists in connection with an investigation into the funding of news website NewsClick, the BBC reported Oct. 21. “Officials are reportedly investigating allegations that NewsClick got illegal funds from China — a charge it denies, the case is currently in the Indian supreme court. Are the raids an attempt by the government to ‘muzzle’ free speech, as some activists say — or simply a straightforward police investigation into the funding of news website Newsclick? Critics say the harassment of journalists, nongovernmental organisations, and other government critics has increased significantly under the current administration. . . .”
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View previous columns (before Feb. 13, 2016)
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- Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
- “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
- Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault, “PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
- Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
- Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
- Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
- Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
- Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)
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