The board of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists has voted 13-2, with two members absent, to leave UNITY: Journalists for Diversity.
“It’s a bitter sweet decision,” writes NAHJ president Hugo Balta. “The board believes in the concept of UNITY, but feels the organization needs to reform to meet the new challenges minority journalists are facing in an industry that is continuously changing.”
This follows the departure more than 2 years ago of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NAHJ and NABJ were charter members of Unity which was founded in 1990 as an alliance of journalism organizations pushing for fair and accurate news coverage about diversity while challenging news executives to hire staffers that reflect the nation’s diversity.
This leaves the Asian American Journalists association (AAJA) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) as well as National Lesbian Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), which joined in 2011, as members of UNITY.
Journal-isms has more on the vote…