UNITY's Statement on Aguilar's Suspension

UNITY's Statement on Aguilar's Suspension

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It has come to the attention of UNITY: Journalists of Color that a television reporter at KDFW-TV Fox 4 in Dallas was suspended last week after public outcry over her aggressive style of reporting.

The story by Rebecca Aguilar focuses on her questioning of a junkyard dealer who had killed two alleged burglars in a span of three weeks.

Upon reviewing the interview, it is apparent that while Aguilar used bold tactics to pursue the story, she did not violate any journalistic standards. It is puzzling why KDFW chose to run Aguilar's piece, and then suspended her only after the station received public pressure. Either her reporting was a violation of the station's standards from the beginning and should never have run, or the station should have -- out of fairness -- also suspended the decision-makers who aired the piece.

UNITY -- which represents nearly 10,000 journalists of color nationwide -- believes Aguilar was singled out for disciplinary action to appease a vocal sector of the public without regard to whether she violated journalistic standards.

UNITY calls upon KDFW to reconsider its disciplinary action against Aguilar, an award-winning journalist with years of experience in television reporting. Let her right to pursue the truth, as well as the editors' right to initially air that piece, both be judged by the same standard.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.

CONTACT: Rahnesha White, Communications Manager of UNITY: Journalists of
Color, Inc., +1-703-854-3587

Web site: http://www.unityjournalists.org/

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Profile: International Entertainment