Pulitzer Center at NAHJ

MIAMI, 21 July 2018 – One of the nation’s leading support groups for journalists, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting maintained an information table at the four-day convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) held this year in Miami, Florida.

In this image, Ann Peters (L) fields questions from a visitor. Peters is the university and community outreach director at the Pulitzer Center, which is based in Washington, DC. At the desk is Jin Ding, the Center’s marketing coordinator.

The Pulitzer Center defines itself, in part, as “an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting in-depth engagement with underreported global affairs through our sponsorship of quality international journalism across all media platforms and a unique program of outreach and education to schools and universities.”

The Center is just one component of a burgeoning movement to support journalists, especially those working abroad. Other members of that movement include Reporters Without Borders, The Groundtruth Project, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC).

American University’s (AU) School of Communication (SOC) now belongs to the Center’s Campus Consortium, a partnership that I spearheaded in 2014. Since then, we have co-sponsored International Reporting Fellowships for AU students traveling to Thailand, Mexico, Borneo, Laos, Colombia and Peru.

These fellowships represent an extraordinary opportunity for students to meet and to join the Center’s international network of seasoned professionals, to take on challenging stories abroad, to add compelling print, photo, video and audio components to their body of work, and to disseminate their work through the Center and its media partners around the world.

The Center maintained an information table during the July 18-21 event because, for working journalists, aspiring journalists, journalism teachers or just anyone interested in the craft of journalism, the 2018 convention NAHJ was the place to be.

The largest and most important organization of its kind, the NAHJ “is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry,” according to its mission statement. The NAHJ includes some 2,000 members, including “working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators.”

Earlier this year, I helped launch the DC student chapter of the NAHJ – the first of its kind in the nation’s capital. I work alongside other faculty, staff and students to make our institution look more like our nation’s population at large. And we are making impressive progress. Of the total number of students entering American University in fall 2017, about 14 percent were Hispanic – higher than ever before.

As the faculty advisor to the new chapter, I’ll be doing my utmost to ensure that AU’s School of Communication maintains an information table and a presence at next year’s convention in San Antonio, Texas.

(Photo by Bill Gentile)

Read Full Post »

Violence Against Journalists Spikes in Latin America

Above, panelists and attendees conduct a moment of silence for journalists killed on the job in Latin America.

By Bill Gentile

MIAMI, 21 July 2018 — Violence against journalists in Latin America is on the rise.

“Fellow journalists in several countries in the Americas continue to face violence and loss of life at the hands of opponents of a free press bent on silencing them just for doing their job,” the program announcing a panel on violence against journalists pointed out.

“Amnesty International calls Mexico the world’s deadliest country for journalists alongside Syria, and journalists in Venezuela experience death threats, harassment, and attacks.”

This year’s annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) was held in Miami. It was an extraordinary event for learning about our craft and its practitioners across the continent. The panel on violence against journalists was just one of the many events and opportunities available during the July 18–21 convention. I was fortunate to be able to attend the final two days.

Panelists at this event discussed how journalism can be a deadly endeavor for those who practice it. The panel was moderated by Rosental Calmon Alves, of the University of Texas at Austin.

In a back-and-forth with members of the panel, I pointed out that the president of the United States has called journalists “the enemy of the American people” and labeled their work as “fake news.” I noted that leaders in countries including Russia, the Philippines and Turkey had taken license from the president’s accusations, and used similar language to attack the media in their own countries. I asked if members of the panel had witnessed whether the president’s language also had infected leaders in countries across this hemisphere.

One panelist, from Venezuela, pointed out that, prior to the ascension to power of Hugo Chavez, “journalists were some of the most respected” professionals in her country. The people loved journalists and the work they did, she said. But after years of demonization by Chavez and his successor Nicolás Maduro, journalists now work under the threat of verbal and physical violence against them.

Dictators like to do their work in the dark, away from the prying eyes of journalists whose job it is to speak truth to power. And we’ve seen the result of this. Venezuela, with some of the richest deposits of oil on the planet, is a violent, failed state unable to feed her own people.

I recently helped launch American University’s (AU) student chapter of the NAHJ – the first in our nation’s capital. As a member of the School of Communication (SOC) Diversity Committee, I work alongside other faculty, staff and students to make our institution look more like our nation’s population at large. And we are making impressive progress. Of the total number of students entering American University in fall 2017, about 14 percent were Hispanic – higher than ever before.

Above, panelists and attendees conduct a moment of silence for journalists killed on the job in Latin America.

Below, Rosental Calmon Alves moderates a panel discussion.

(Photos by Bill Gentile)

Read Full Post »