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Oh, Haiti! How Bad Is It?

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‘Most of the Real Good Journalists Have Fled’
NABJ’s Tucker a Winner in News Leaders Awards
On Slavery, Turn to Du Bois, Woodson for Clarity
Guardian Hiring Race Writers After Slavery Report
Docuseries on Essence Magazine Debuts Aug. 18

AJC Fires Reporter Over UGA Football Piece
Morgan State U.: ‘History of a National Treasure’
William Dilday, First Black G.M. in TV, Dies at 85
Edith Auslander, 83, Founding Member of NAHJ
S.O.S. From Central American Journos; Indigenous Too

Family’s Obituary of William H. Dilday Jr.

Short Takes: “Beer is Black history”; IRE and Chauncey Bailey; racial pay disparities at Forbes; Tavis Smiley and Ruben Navarrette Jr.; Simon Ateba; NAJA and 2SLGBTQIA+ people; Santa Barbara News-Press; Robbie Morganfield; Terrell Jermaine Starr; Editor & Publisher’s “15 over 50” Class of 2023; Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for outstanding reporting on the Americas; Travis King.

Homepage photo: Haitian gang activity, credit Twitter@inusminutsht

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Dozens of journalists marched in white through Haiti last November to denounce the murder of eight of their colleagues that year. (Credit: Darbenzky Gilbert/Human Rights Organizations, known as ORDEDH)

‘Most of the Real Good Journalists Have Fled’

How bad is it for journalists in Haiti?

One of the country’s prominent gangs likes to kidnap journalists in particular partly to be sure their story is told, according to Michele Montas, a veteran Haitian journalist whose husband, Jean Léopold Dominique, owner of Radio Haiti Inter, was assassinated in 2000.

In addition, the Inter American Press Association reported July 22, “A journalist has been kidnapped in the Haitian capital, the sixth kidnapping affecting the Haitian press this year.”

“Blondine Tanis (pictured), co-host of the ‘Tribune Matinale’ program broadcast on Radio Rénovation FM (107.1FM), fell into the hands of her captors on Friday, July 21, as she was entering her home in the Delmas neighborhood, east of Port-au-Prince, local media confirmed. . . .”

A third indicator: The State Department issued this advisory Thursday: “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure. On July 27, 2023, the Department of State ordered the departure of family members of U.S. government employees and non-emergency U.S. government employees. U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options. . . . “

“There is a deep crisis in journalism” in Haiti, said Garry Pierre-Pierre (pictured), founder of the Haitian Times in New York. “Most of the real good ones have fled.”

Pierre-Pierre and Montas were among the speakers at a news conference at Washington’s National Press Club Thursday to publicize a podcast series, ” ‘Silenced’: The Radio Murders.” (podcasts)

The invitation said, “Transporting listeners back to 1990s Miami, the series re-examines the unsolved assassinations of three radio journalists in Little Haiti, linked to pro-democracy broadcasts. To this day, the masterminds remain free. Ana Arana, who first investigated the crimes thirty years ago, teamed up with host and Kaleidoscope founder Oz Woloshyn to find answers.

“The government could reopen the investigation if they wanted to do so,” said Ana Arana. “And take it to the federal level.”

“Ana Arana said of the podcast’s creation, ‘When we began this podcast, we wanted to tell a story about impunity and the impact it has on immigrant communities. However, as the series developed, we realized the need to have federal authorities re-examine the cases because they encroached on the First Amendment and the essential right to free speech. With their murders, these voices, and the ideas that those broadcasters held were silenced.’ ”

Although there were arrests in the cases, Arana messaged Journal-isms, “I am hoping that a federal investigation is launched and they go after the intellectual authors. We are trying to get lawyers to look at it. The Committee to Protect Journalists is reviewing the case. The state authorities would only be moved if the community came together and asked that the cases be reopened.

“Two guys, the shooter and the driver of the getaway car were convicted. One is out, Hitler Fleurinord. Billy Alexander the shooter is in prison for life for another murder. However Louis Thermitus, the man suspected of ordering the murders was never caught. He fled for Haiti. But he is back in Miami now. The government could reopen the investigation if they wanted to do so. And take it to the federal level. Also, the shooters on the other two murders were never prosecuted. The cases died out.”

Montas mentioned her husband’s assassination during her presentation. She said that “for 30 years, I have been keeping the cold case alive,” despite the arrest of a perpetrator. It was then that she mentioned the gang that has a liking for journalists.

The group is called Kraze Barye, for “break the gates,” and it is led by Vitel’Homme Innocent, once a political activist.

Local media credited to Kraze Barye the April kidnapping of Robert Denis, general director of the private television station Canal Bleu, and twice vice-president of the National Association of Haitian Media.

“As far as I know, nothing has been written about the recent targeting of journalists by Vitelhomme Innocent and his gang,” Montas messaged Journal-isms Saturday. “The reason is simply that his gang is responsible of so much of the violence in several neighborhoods in Port au Prince that the coverage in the mainstream media has been about the larger picture: about the population of whole neighborhoods being displaced by the gang, about kidnapping and about gang rapes.   

“Innocent himself gave a press conference this week  to some social media outlet to try once more to get public opinion on his side. . . .

“What I know is that his gang Kraze Baryè is considered responsible for the kidnapping of at least 5 journalists in recent weeks. One of them was Marie Lucie Bonhomme, a well known radio journalist who was kidnapped and released after Innocent told her of his grievances against his former allies in the police force. In this week’s press conference, Innocent accused again his former allies of being responsible for the violence against the population and the kidnappings in the Tabarre neighborhood ( close to the American Embassy ). He says he is simply a scapegoat.” 

The State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program is offering a reward of up to $1 million U.S. for information leading to Innocent’s arrest and/or conviction.

The FBI notes that Innocent “allegedly worked together with the gang 400 Mawozo, in the October 2021, kidnapping of 17 Christian Missionaries in Haiti, including five children, one as young as 8 months old. The hostages were allegedly held at gunpoint and most remained captive for 61 days. The gangs demanded ransom payment for each of the victims.”

Meanwhile, a “‘ ‘Study on media development in Haiti’ conducted by Unesco in 2022 and made public by the organization on February 10, 2023, also indicates that, although the State ensures the protection of journalists, attacks against the press are frequent, and their perpetrators are rarely brought to justice,” Javier Valdivia wrote in February for the Inter American Press Association.

“Haiti is experiencing a severe political crisis and a climate of constant insecurity, compounded by poverty, corruption, and impunity. Nine journalists were murdered last year, the worst year for the practice of journalism in the continent after Mexico, according to IAPA. Journalists are easy targets for attacks, threats, and kidnappings. . . .

“The IAPA called on the Haitian government to guarantee the preservation of freedom of expression and the free and safe practice of journalism and urged the press organizations of the Americas to express their solidarity and support for journalists and media outlets that continue to carry out their mission despite the high-risk circumstances. . . .”

Dorothy Tucker was surrounded by colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists, along with friends and industry colleagues, last Oct. 22 in Atlanta. She was surprised with a celebration of her 45th year as a broadcast journalist. (Credit: Bobbi Jo Brooks Fine Art & Photography)

NABJ’s Tucker a Winner in News Leaders Awards

Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has been awarded the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership, the News Leaders Association announced Friday. NLA also honored Kyle Whitmire, John Archibald, Ashley Remkus and Ramsey Archibald of AL.com, Michael Stavola of the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle and Jaeah Lee of Type Investigations for race-related or social justice reporting.

It is rare for a leader of a journalists-of-color organization to be so honored.

Tucker “is a passionate and respected advocate for diversity, often reaching out to leaders at news organizations to ensure they meet the goals they have set for diversifying their newsrooms,” the judges said. “She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks right up to the challenge and gets things done. An award-winning investigative reporter for CBS2 Chicago, Tucker also seeks to ensure that news coverage of communities of color includes important context and highlights the voices of those communities.

“First elected NABJ president in 2019, Tucker has overseen the organization’s mission through a confluence of events – from the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately affected people of color to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by overzealous policing that led to a national reckoning on race. Having worked in newsrooms from Memphis to Denver and Pittsburgh, Tucker’s journey has given her regional insights and expanded her network of influence.”

John Archibald, Remkus and Ramsey Archibald (pictured, left to right) were co-winners of the Frank A. Blethen Award for Local Accountability Reporting for “The Rise and Fall of a Predatory Police Force” [PDF]. It centers on actions taken by a new police chief in Brookside, Ala., a rural town 10 miles north of Birmingham that is 70 percent white, 21 percent Black, and with a small but growing Hispanic population.

“Less than a week after the first story published, the police chief resigned and left town. But that was just the beginning of the fallout. As a result of the reporting, the state opened investigations, lawmakers called for curbs on police abuse, the DOJ sided with drivers shaken down by the town and the town itself suspended traffic court, let half the police force go and asked for outside help,” said the Hillman Foundation, which also honored the work.

Co-winner of the Blethen award was Stavola of the Wichita Eagle, which “brought enviable reporting depth and incredibly impressive police sourcing to bear on this expose about racist messages openly shared among members of the local department. The reporting coming from this local newsroom had widespread impact that tremendously benefited the community and shocked even its highest ranking officials.”

The social justice award for Lee (pictured) honored “A novel, ground-up investigation that showed how prosecutors increasingly are winning convictions and long prison terms, even with little other proof, by getting evidence before juries linking defendants to rap music and lyrics, what legal scholars called ‘racialized character evidence.’ ”

Whitmire (pictured), also a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, won the Mike Royko Award for Commentary and Column Writing for “State of Denial: How 150 years of whitewashed history poisons Alabama today.”

The judges said, “Whitmire’s engaging approach of serving as a reader’s tour guide pulls a reader through Alabama’s dark, racist history that still pokes through civic life. He doesn’t use in-your-face prose. Instead, he brings readers along while writing about how white lawmakers in 1901 subverted the rights of Black citizens. His compelling writing makes plain that this is not merely Alabama’s history; it is also its present, as political forces try to erase or whitewash what truly happened – and what is still tolerated.”

In March, “After walking down a path where enslaved people once marched in chains to waiting ships, Vice President Kamala Harris entered a dungeon in Cape Coast, Ghana, where captive women had sung songs praying for death” Zolan Kanno-Youngs reported for The New York Times. “If nothing else, her tour guide said . . . , they believed death would bring freedom. Ms. Harris, wiping her face and visibly emotional, walked outside this former slave port and connected the past to the present.”

On Slavery, Turn to Du Bois, Woodson for Clarity

Florida’s state education board, and later, Gov. Ron DeSantis, stirred a hornet’s nest this month when they approved middle school standards that declared that students should learn about “skills” learned by slaves that could be “applied for their personal benefit.”

Vice President Kamala Harris joined others when she called the standards an “insult” and “revisionist history” July 20 at a national convention of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, in a subscriber-only newsletter, wrote one of the most nuanced columns on the subject Saturday when he concluded that the missing element in the standards is context.

“One of the points I tried to make in my Friday column about the new Florida curriculum on the history of slavery is that the context of a statement can have a radical effect on its meaning,” Bouie began.

“To be clear, there are legitimate objections to make to the particular phrasing. As I noted in my piece, to say that ‘Slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit’ is to make several untenable assumptions about the experiences of most enslaved Africans as well as to occlude the essential quality of life under slavery, which is that neither your person nor your labor were your own.

“But the basic idea that ‘slaves developed skills’ isn’t an illegitimate one. And although it has been deployed in efforts to minimize the fundamental injustice of American slavery, it has also been used in defense of the essential humanity of the enslaved. For example, at the same time that white supremacist authors were writing slavery apologia for student instruction, scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois (pictured) were taking note of the skills and agency of enslaved Africans for a very different purpose.

“It must not be assumed, however, that the labor of the Negro has been simply the muscle-straining unintelligent work of the lowest grade. On the contrary he has appeared both as personal servant, skilled laborer and inventor. That the Negroes of colonial times were not all ignorant savages is shown by the advertisements concerning them. Continually runaway slaves are described as speaking very good English; sometimes as speaking not only English but Dutch and French. Some could read and write and play musical instruments. Others were blacksmiths, limeburners, bricklayers and cobblers. Others were noted as having considerable sums of money. In the early days in the South the whole conduct of the house was in the hands of the Negro house servant; as butler, cook, nurse, valet and maid, the Negro conducted family life.

“Likewise, in his account of colonial slavery, the historian and activist Carter G. Woodson (pictured), provides a catalog of ‘the evidences of mental development of the Negroes of that day.’

“In offering slaves for sale and advertising for fugitives, masters spoke of their virtues as well as their shortcomings. Judging from what they said about them in these advertisements, one must conclude that many of the eighteenth century slaves had taken over modern civilization and had made themselves useful and skilled laborers, with a knowledge of the modern languages, the fundamentals of mathematics and science, and acquaintance with some of the professions.

“The difference between these accounts and those of the slavery apologists, however, is that Du Bois, Woodson and their contemporaries never implied or suggested that chattel slavery was anything less than a crime. Where apologists dismissed or disparaged the efforts, radical and otherwise, to end slavery, Du Bois, Woodson and others gave them pride of place in their histories and narratives about the peculiar institution. And in the same way that slavery apologia served a specific ideological purpose, the emphasis on the skills and agency of the enslaved by Black scholars was meant to challenge, in Woodson’s famous words, ‘the mis-education of the Negro.’

“This is all to say that what might appear to be little more than a semantic dispute is, in actuality, a much more fundamental conflict about what the facts of our history actually mean, not just for the past, but for the present.”

Guardian Hiring Race Writers After Slavery Report

“The Guardian has today announced it is recruiting several new editorial positions, including dedicated correspondents for the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and reporter roles in the UK and the US specialising in race, equity, community affairs, health and inequality,” the publication announced Tuesday.

“The seven new roles aim to boost the scope and ambition of the Guardian’s coverage of underrepresented regions and communities, and come in response to research which found links between the founders of the Manchester Guardian and historical transatlantic slavery.

“The roles are:

“Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media says:

“These new roles will further boost our coverage of underrepresented regions and communities all over the world, in North and South America, the Caribbean, the UK, and across Africa. They will be reporting on the urgent stories and issues that affect societies in those regions today, aiming to cover these populations in a depth and breadth rarely seen in the western media. I look forward to the positive changes that all these positions will make to the Guardian’s overall coverage. . . . ”

The five-part series follows a collaboration between OWN and Essence in March, “the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards.” Urban Hollywood 411 noted, “For decades, Essence has been a staple in the Black community. But the magazine has also had its share of troubles, including complaints of a ‘poisonous’ workplace culture, which led to CEO Richelieu Dennis stepping down in 2020.” However, “Investigations by two law firms have determined that the leaders of Essence Communications, including its owner, Richelieu Dennis, did not engage in behavior that contributed to a toxic workplace,” the New York Times reported.

Docuseries on Essence Magazine Debuts Aug. 18

Essence magazine will be the subject of a five-part documentary series, “Time of Essence,” premiering Aug. 18, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), has announced.

” ‘Time of Essence’ will tell the story of how ESSENCE has informed and reflected Black culture in America for the past half-century. Each episode explores a different decade – from the ’70s to today – and features first-hand commentary on that era’s biggest moments from the icons, trailblazers, staffers and leaders who lived and defined them. These candid discussions are coupled with never-before-seen footage and exciting moments from the genres of entertainment, sports, politics, fashion and beauty.

“The upcoming series will feature interviews with fashion model and icon Beverly Johnson, Johnson’s daughter Anansa Sims, Academy Award-winning actresses Halle Berry and Whoopi Goldberg, ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood recipient Sheryl Lee Ralph, Regina Hall and Taye Diggs,” Okla Jones wrote for Essence. “Iconic ESSENCE Magazine editor Mikki Taylor, long-time Editor [in] Chief Susan L. Taylor, and current President and CEO Caroline Wanga are also prominently highlighted in the program. . . .”

 

When University of Georgia players Adam Anderson, left, and Jamaal Jarrett, right, were accused of sexual misconduct, head coach Kirby Smart, center, offered support. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution compilation)

AJC Fires Reporter Over UGA Football Piece

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) fired writer and investigative reporter Alan Judd (pictured, below) for ‘violating the organization’s journalistic standards.’ The firing comes on the heels of the University of Georgia issuing a nine-page response to a story by Judd,” Ryan Broyles reported July 20 for sportskeeda.com.

Brian Eason reported July 19 for the AJC, “The AJC’s editors said they could not substantiate one of the article’s key assertions about Head Coach Kirby Smart’s tenure: that 11 players remained with the team after women reported violent encounters. The ‘precise count of 11 players’ could not be substantiated under the AJC’s standards, the statement said. . . .”

“In a second error, the article improperly joined two statements a detective made minutes apart into a single quotation, the statement said. Connecting the sentences did not change the meaning of the quote, but the way it was presented to readers failed to meet AJC standards, according to the statement. . . .” The news organization issued corrections [and] declined the university’s demand for the article to be retracted.

Eason continued, “Judd has been a leading reporter at the AJC for nearly 25 years, writing many of the newsroom’s most significant investigations and breaking news stories. His work has exposed slumlords profiting from dangerous apartment complexes in metro Atlanta; linked suspicious deaths in state psychiatric hospitals to neglect and abuse; and helped uncover a teacher cheating scandal in Atlanta Public Schools.

“ ‘I am proud of the work I have done for the AJC for the last 24 years and I am grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve the community,’ Judd said in a statement.

“The UGA article was the latest in a series of reports showing how football players often elude accountability for off-field infractions. The AJC previously reported that the program’s permissive culture tolerated reckless driving, excessive speeding and street racing by its players. That behavior culminated in tragedy when a high-speed car crash in January killed a football player and a member of the team’s staff, later leading to criminal charges against star defensive lineman Jalen Carter. . . .”

Broyles added for sportskeeda.com, “Judd faced similar allegations in 1988. He resigned from the Louisville Courier-Journal amidst backlash from a story where he misquoted sources. There is no word at this time of Judd’s future.”


Morgan State U.: ‘History of a National Treasure’

DeWayne Wickham, founding dean of the Morgan State University School of Global Journalism & Communication, has produced this trailer for an upcoming film on the university’s history.

“I got this assignment in December 2022 and the finished film will go into the can in a few days,” he said.

In his post-dean life, Wickham directs Morgan’s Center for New Media and Strategic Initiatives, which, according to a news release, “works (1.) to find innovative ways to report and disseminate news to people who live in urban news deserts; “(2.) to produce contemporary and historical documentaries about Black life in the African diaspora, and
“(3.) to help expand the ranks of the Black journalists and news executives who are needed to bring balance and diversity to American journalism.”

The center’s first major film project was “The Calvin Tyler Story,” “a compelling film on the life and accomplishments of Morgan alumnus and philanthropist Calvin E. Tyler Jr.’

Seven years ago, the university, not far from the origins of the “Star Spangled Banner” at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, produced a documentary on the anthem’s history “and the hidden truths about the third verse of the song” through the guidance of actor, director and producer Tim Reid, and under then-dean Wickham’s direction.

 

William Dilday with the Mississippi Freedom Trail marker in front of WLBT in Jackson, Miss. “He came here not knowing people and people didn’t know him. But he reached out and he built the stations’ reputation back for being inclusive, for being diverse and giving honest reporting,” said Rep. Earle Banks, a longtime friend. (Credit: WLBT)

William Dilday, First Black G.M. in TV, Dies at 85

William H. Dilday Jr., who became the first Black general manager in American television when he was hired to run WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., in 1972, died on July 27 in Newton, Mass., of cerebral herniation following a fall, according to an obituary from the Dilday family transmitted Saturday. He was 85.

“In 1964, the United Church of Christ filed suit with the Federal Communications Commission against the Jackson NBC affiliate, WLBT-TV, after an anchorman mocked black protesters following a segment on a 1960 civil rights demonstration to protest its policy of discriminating against blacks. The station owner, Lamar Life Insurance Company, lost its right to broadcast in a landmark June 1969 Court of Appeals decision written by Judge Warren E. Burger, who became Chief Justice of the United States three days after the opinion was published.

“As one of only two commercial television stations in Jackson at the time, WLBT was considered an important source of information and the F.C.C. permitted the station to remain on the air on an interim basis in the custody of a newly formed nonprofit organization, Communications Improvement Inc. The biracial board [comprising] black and white members recruited Mr. Dilday, then personnel director for WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, as head, making him the first black person to serve as general manager of a television station. . . .”

Three years later, in 1975, Dilday became one of 44 co-founders of the National Association of Black Journalists.

“Founder Dilday’s years of dedication to creating spaces for Black journalists and visibility for the Black community is what made him a trailblazer in our industry and an NABJ gem,” NABJ President Dorothy Tucker said in a statement. “He will never be forgotten.”

Dilday discussed NABJ’s founding meeting with Wayne Dawkins for “Black Journalists: The NABJ Story.”

“I technically wasn’t a journalist. My job was in management. But the TV station itself was a news operation,” he said.

“At the meeting people were defining narrow guidelines (for eligibility.) We talked of Black-owned media vs. major media and print vs. broadcast.

“I was writing and doing TV editorials. I doubt I would have qualified (for membership) had I not been.”

Complete family obituary at the end of this column.

Edith Auslander, 83, Founding Member of NAHJ

Edith Sayre Auslander (pictured), a Tucson native who rose from the local newsroom to the upper echelon of the state’s university system while championing minorities and women in higher education and journalism, died Wednesday of natural causes,” Ernesto Portillo Jr. reported July 22, updated July 23, for the Arizona Daily Star. “She was 83.

“As a journalist with the Arizona Daily Star and later a University of Arizona assistant professor of journalism, Auslander mentored numerous journalists at the start and during their careers. She was instrumental in developing national journalism training programs for minorities and was a founding member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in the early 1980s.

“And in her positions on the Arizona Board of Regents and as UA vice president and senior associate to the president, she led the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women in 1991 and was involved in the creation of the Women’s Plaza of Honor on the UA campus which was dedicated in 2005.

“ ‘Her biggest impact right now, when she was president of the Board of Regents, was the creation of the Commission on Women,’ said her husband, Steve Auslander, a former editor and local publisher with the Arizona Daily Star. ‘That was her foremost impact, and the building of the women’s plaza was pretty extraordinary.’

“He attributed much of her success and achievements to being ‘adroit at moving around a bunch of male egos.’. . .

“ ‘Edie was very talented and a trailblazer in many fields, but I knew her best as a fellow journalist. She was an outstanding reporter, editor, and newspaper executive at a time when female journalists were few and far between — and in an era when female Hispanic journalists were even more uncommon,’ wrote Frank Sotomayor, referring to Auslander by her nickname.

“ ‘She like me and others, saw the scarcity of people of color in journalism who could tell our stories with greater knowledge and sensitivity,’ said the Tucson native and former Los Angeles Times journalist.

“She was inducted into the Tucson High Badger Hall of Fame, the UA Journalism Hall of Fame, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame. And in a unique Tucson honor, Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson named Auslander a Doña, a title of respect and distinction. . . ..”

S.O.S. From Central American Journos; Indigenous Too

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other press-freedom organizations reiterated an urgent call for the release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora at a Washington, D.C., news conference Wednesday marking a year since Zamora’s imprisonment in Guatemala.

The call was buttressed by a full-page public service ad in the print edition of The Washington Post. At the news conference, the detention of Zamora was portrayed as part of a worldwide rise of authoritarian regimes that requires an international response. “The international community has been slow in responding to this. The time for that is over,” Carlos Martínez de la Serna of CPJ told the news conference.

The crackdown on journalists, spreading throughout Central America, also includes mistreatment of community and indigenous journalists in the region, groups little heard from, the CPJ program director said.

Ana María Méndez Dardón and Héctor Silva Avalos of the Washington Office on Latin America, which advocates for human rights in the region, wrote last year, “in the indigenous territories of the country, Mayan communicators have been subject to harassment and criminal prosecution for years. The cases of the Maya Q’eqchi’ journalists Carlos Choc, Baudilio Choc, and Juan Bautista Xol, whose homes were raided by the Guatemalan police after they covered police repression of indigenous communities opposed to the presence of mines and monocultures in their territories, stand out. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened two criminal proceedings against Carlos Choc and, although he was granted alternatives to detention, the risk of imprisonment is permanent for him.” (Photo: Deutsche Welle)

Dalia Faheid reported for the Voice of America in 2020, “Latin America has a rapidly growing movement of indigenous journalists who are championing indigenous rights violated by the state, corporations and gangs, said Avex Cojti, community media program manager at Cultural Survival, an indigenous people’s advocacy organization. But, she said, the criminalization of indigenous journalists in countries such as Guatemala is commonplace.”

The CPJ summary of the news conference continued, ” ‘José Rubén Zamora’s imprisonment is a gross miscarriage of justice and a flagrant attack on journalism in Guatemala,’ said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg in a written statement. ‘This case is a bellwether for democracy in Guatemala; the courts should right this wrong and release Zamora without delay.’

“Speaking at the National Press Club, José Carlos Zamora, son of the jailed journalist; Guatemalan journalist in exile Bertha Michelle Mendoza; and CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna — in a discussion moderated by Sara Fischer, senior media reporter at Axios — called on the international community to act with greater urgency over Zamora’s case and the growing challenges faced by journalists in the region.

“ ‘The administration of Alejandro Giammattei has held my father hostage for 365 days based on a fabricated case and an absolute violation of due process,’ said José Carlos Zamora at the press conference. ‘Governments realized that assassinating journalists comes at a very high cost, so it was easier to use the legal system to persecute them.’

“Concurrent with the press conference, CPJ issued a joint statement, in partnership with over a dozen civil society organizations, urging Guatemala’s Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court to provide due justice in Zamora’s case to ensure his release without further delay.

“ ‘In the case of José Rubén Zamora, the situation has gotten worse in the last year until the international community started to put out very clear statements telling the government that this is not acceptable,’ said Carlos Martínez de la Serna. ‘They cannot wait. They cannot consider political calculations.’ . . . ”

Short Takes

William Dilday “came in at a time when healing was needed and to build morale at the station and develop a kind of family relationship between all cultures,” said Goldia Revies, WLBT’s former public affairs director under Dilday. ‘And it worked. And it was good. And we all felt that togetherness that we were all in this together. ‘ ” (Credit: WLBT)

Family’s Obituary of William H. Dilday Jr.

William H. Dilday Jr., who became the first black general manager in American television when he was hired to run WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi in 1972, died on July 27 in Newton, Massachusetts, of cerebral herniation following a fall. He was 85.

In 1964, the United Church of Christ filed suit with the Federal Communications Commission against the Jackson NBC affiliate, WLBT-TV, after an anchorman mocked black protesters following a segment on a 1960 civil rights demonstration to protest its policy of discriminating against blacks. The station owner, Lamar Life Insurance Company, lost its right to broadcast in a landmark June 1969 Court of Appeals decision written by Judge Warren E. Burger, who became Chief Justice of the United States three days after the opinion was published.

As one of only two commercial television stations in Jackson at the time, WLBT was considered an important source of information and the F.C.C. permitted the station to remain on the air on an interim basis in the custody of a newly formed nonprofit organization, Communications Improvement Inc. The biracial board [comprising] black and white members recruited Mr. Dilday, then personnel director for WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, as head, making him the first black person to serve as general manager of a television station.

Mr. Dilday’s appointment followed the findings of the White House-commissioned Kerner Commission which concluded that poverty and institutional racism had led to the urban riots of the late 1960s and that for too long the news media had covered the country “with white men’s eyes and white perspective.” Mr. Dilday was a native of Boston yet he took a chance and moved his young family to one of the most notorious sites of racial unrest during the Civil Rights struggles of the mid-20th century when he took the helm of WLBT. “TV has a profound effect on
what people know, understand and believe,” Mr. Dilday said. “And young people who want to get into this business should realize that everything to be done is not to be done in front of the camera.” Mr. Dilday desegregated the station’s programming, creating a children’s program on which both black and white children appeared and appointing a black man and white woman as co-anchors for the nightly news.

Some decisions such as his refusal to air the 1980 NBC miniseries ‘Beulah Land,’ were controversial. The show had been criticized by the NAACP for depicting blacks as enjoying life while enslaved on the plantation, but it had been filmed entirely in Mississippi with the support of the state’s Film Commission, which had lobbied to have the program made in the state.

In 1973, Mr. Dilday joined with a predominantly black group of United States Virgin Islands residents to purchase a network‐affiliated television station on St. Croix, making it the first major television station owned and operated by blacks on United States territory.

He acted as general manager until the group was able to hire a permanent replacement. With 43 other journalists, in 1975, he was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

In Mississippi, he served as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Communication Task Force and from 1978 until 1979, Mr. Dilday served as president of the Jackson Urban League. In 1985 he moved to run the CBS affiliate station in Jackson, WJTV, where he served as general manager and executive vice president for eight years. In later years, he established an independent media consulting business, Kerimax Communications, with a specialty in political strategy. He was one of Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson’s early strategic advisors and he planned the strategy for Harvey Johnson Jr., who became Jackson’s first African-American mayor.

Mr. Dilday was born on September 14, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Alease Virginia Scott, a homemaker, and William Horace Dilday, a Pullman porter. He graduated from English High School in Boston and received his B.S. in business administration from Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Dilday served in the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1962 and was stationed on Governor’s Island in New York. He returned to Massachusetts then moved to
Jackson where he remained until 2022 when he moved to Waltham, Massachusetts.

Mr. Dilday was married for 56 years to the former Maxine Carol Wiggins who survives him. Additionally, he is survived by his younger brothers, Clarence and James; three children: Scott Sparrow, Erika Dilday and Kenya Alease Dilday; and four grandchildren.

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