UNITY Global Fellows Cover United Nations AIDS Meeting

NEW YORK, June 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented collaboration, 12 young journalists from the four major minority journalism organizations in the United States spent the week covering the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS.

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The meeting was attended by more than 3,000 delegates, including dozens of presidents and first ladies. The goal of the meeting was to chart the future course of the global AIDS response three decades after the first High Level Meeting.

The 2011 UNITY Global Fellows Project is a partnership between UNAIDS and UNITY: Journalists of Color (UNITY). Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists are involved in the project.

"I am thrilled that UNITY could facilitate this collaborative effort," said Joanna Hernandez, UNITY president. "The work produced by these 12 budding journalists has been nothing short of phenomenal. I am grateful to the mentors, all professional journalists from across the country, for volunteering their time and sharing their knowledge and expertise. Together, their hard work made this project a great success." 

Starting Wednesday, the fellows produced UNITY AIDSNews, a daily newspaper, on the meeting and side events. They also filed reports for the Web at www.un.unitynews.org and recorded video for a special YouTube channel. The project's newsroom was set up across the street from the United Nations building.

Mentors from all four journalism associations contributed to the project, which was directed by John Yearwood, co-chair of the UNITY World Affairs Task Force. Rochelle Riley, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, served as editor. Committee co-chairs Djibril Diallo, senior adviser to the executive director of UNAIDS, and Cecilia Alvear, former NAHJ president and NBC producer, were also project leaders.   

CBS television hosted a welcome reception for the fellows on Monday after they arrived in New York. For more on the project, visit www.un.unitynews.org.

About UNITY: Journalists of Color
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation's diversity. UNITY is comprised of three national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association together with an outreach to more than 4,000 journalists of color. In addition to planning the largest regular gathering of journalists in the nation, UNITY supports research and advocacy initiatives that promote its mission. For more information on UNITY, visit www.unityjournalists.org, email [email protected] or call (703) 854-3585.

Media Contact:
Onica N. Makwakwa, Executive Director
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.
Tel: (703) 854-3594
[email protected]

SOURCE UNITY: Journalists of Color