WASHINGTON, June 17, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- From fiery rhetoric about Arizona's controversial new immigration law to the racially-motivated murders of Hispanics in Pennsylvania and Long Island, New York, there are increased attacks on Latinos on all fronts.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is bringing together a dynamic group of community leaders and journalists to address the need for accurate and fair news coverage of Latinos during its 28th Annual Multimedia Convention & Career Expo in Denver next week.
The 2010 Opening Plenary/Town Hall, titled: Latinos, the Newest Demons? The Need for Accurate News Coverage to Abate the Hate is open to the public and Latino community leaders throughout Colorado are being invited to attend.
The panel, comprised of community and news leaders, will examine how misperceptions about Latinos have led to a climate of discrimination and violence; and the need for the community to have an active voice, and for journalists to lead strong, accurate coverage.
The session will be moderated by Tina Griego, a columnist at The Denver Post. Panelists include (more panelists to come):
- Polly Baca, the first Latina to be elected to the Colorado State Senate. She was also the executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA), which documents trends and issues affecting Hispanics in Colorado.
- Richard Lamm, former three-time governor of Colorado. Lamm is now the co-director of the Institute for Public Policy at the University of Denver. Lamm, who was a Democratic governor, has taken a hard line against immigration and raised concerns about diversity, multiculturalism and the country's rapid demographic changes in past speeches and proposals.
- Amber Tafoya, attorney and Democratic candidate for District 4 of the Colorado State House of Representatives and a former Public Policy Director for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
| What: | 2010 Opening Plenary/Town Hall: Latinos, the Newest Demons? The |
| Need for Accurate News Coverage to Abate the Hate | |
| When: | Wednesday, June 23, 2010 |
| 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. | |
| Where: | Colorado Convention Center |
| Korbel Ballroom 1 | |
| 700 14th Street | |
| Denver, CO | |
Sponsored by:
The Denver Post
www.denverpost.com
There will also be discussion of the national Parity Project survey to be launched later this year which will seek input from Latino community leaders nationwide. This new phase of NAHJ's Parity Project calls for assessing how many of the nation's Latinos use, view and participate in news media.
This national survey is being funded by the McCormick Foundation, which is also the major funder of the Parity Project.
Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 1,200 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists logo is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=7410