ABQ Journal Follow Up

NAHJ Delegation to Meet with Albuquerque Journal Leaders to Discuss Next Steps after Publication of Racist Cartoon

Washington, D.C., February 14, 2018 – National Association of Hispanic Journalists Board President Brandon Benavides will lead a delegation to meet with Albuquerque Journal Editor-in-Chief Karen Moses in New Mexico. NAHJ representatives will continue talks about the racist editorial cartoon published on Wednesday, February 7 in the Journal. Since its publication, the national board has worked together with the New Mexico Chapter to prioritize concerns and offer practical solutions to the Journal.

NAHJ Region 7 Director Dianna Náñez, New Mexico Chapter President May Ortega and former NAHJ President Dino Chiecchi will join Benavides to meet with Ms. Moses, Editorial Page Editor D’Val Westphal and Managing Editor Dan Herrera.

The meeting will be held March 5^th at the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico.
“We continue to reach out to the Albuquerque Journal for an opportunity to create real change. Our mission is to continue our dialogue with the paper’s editors to ensure fair and accurate coverage of Latinos in the community. The published cartoon did a disservice to the community and now we are coming together to ensure it does not happen again,” commented Brandon Benavides, NAHJ President.

The national board is confident this will work to help improve the newsroom process, increase representation and uphold the responsibility as journalists to report with accuracy and fairness.
NAHJ set the agenda as follows:

·      Further discuss a plan to develop an editorial process at the Journal that would prevent racist publications from happening again

·      Assurance from the Journal’s management that reporters will not be reprimanded for speaking out on social media

·      Consultation from NAHJ leadership to create a diversity committee on the floor of the Journal’s newsroom

·      A staff meeting held by the Journal’s leadership to create a safe space for conversation regarding the racist cartoon and an apology directly to the staff

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About NAHJ The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is the largest organization of Latino journalists in the United States and dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. The mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latinos in the newsrooms and to work toward fair and accurate representation of Latinos in news media. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists. NAHJ has approximately 2,200 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators. For more information please visit NAHJ.org or follow on Twitter @NAHJ.