Among Winners: Afro-Cuban Exile, Arrested Reporter
BuzzFeed Shares Up After News of Sale to Byron Allen
N.Y. Times’ Kristof Details Abuse of Palestinians
‘What Did Jamaica Do to Deserve Kari Lake?’
Publisher Ruthie Hopkins, 83, Survived Calif. Fires
19 Win Knight-Wallace Fellowships at U. of Michigan
Asian Americans’ ‘Overlooked History’; Struggle to Belong’
Homepage image by National Association of Black Journalists
Abraham Jiménez Enoa is presented with the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists on Nov. 17, 2022. (Credit: CPJ/YouTube)
Among Winners: Afro-Cuban Exile, Arrested Reporter
Abraham Jimenez Enoa, an Afro-Cuban who fled the island and its government’s repressive policies toward non-government journalists; Georgia Fort, arrested along with Don Lemon and others covering protests in Minneapolis; and Brent Staples, longtime New York Times opinion writer who retired last year after a reorganization of his section, are among those to be honored this summer by the National Association of Black Journalists, NABJ announced Thursday.
“I am very happy about this award. It is a great recognition for the independent Cuban press and for me in particular,” Jimenez Enoa, now living in Spain, messaged Journal-isms. “But most importantly, it is recognition for Black people in Cuba who have suffered racism on the island and in exile, and who never tire of condemning this inhumane discrimination.”
Jimenez Enoa is the first journalist from Latin America to win the Percy Qoboza Award for a foreign journalist. It comes as the Trump administration is threatening to invade the island, and, according to USA Today, at least a dozen political prisoners languishing in Cuban prisons “are at the center of high-stakes negotiations between U.S. and Cuban officials that could reshape future relations between the Cold War foes.”
The Spain-based Prisoners Defenders reported Thursday, “Our April 2026 report documents 23 new political prisoners in Cuba, including minors, athletes, artists, independent journalists, and peaceful activists, as well as serious allegations of sexual violence in prison, repression against the families of dissidents, and death threats against prisoners of conscience in the event of a US intervention in Cuba.”
Jimenez Enoa called the award “great recognition for press freedom. It’s a shame not to be able to be there in person at the gala! I would have loved it!
“But I don’t have the finances to pay for a ticket and lodging. I live in very precarious conditions in exile.” It is a complaint voiced by others representing foreign journalists honored by NABJ.
Georgia Fort testifies before the Congressional Black Caucus.
If no image appears, please consider using a different browser.
“When federal agents arrived at Georgia Fort’s front door to arrest her, she knew what to do: be a journalist,” Rachel Leingang wrote April 16 for the Guardian.
“Fort, an independent Minnesota reporter who faces criminal charges after covering a protest inside a St Paul church, took out her phone and spoke directly to the camera, livestreaming to her audience that her lawyer advised her to go with the agents. Her three kids were in the house at the time, she said.
“ ‘I’m going to have to hop off here and surrender to agents,’ she said in the video on 30 January. ‘As a member of the press, I filmed the church protest a few weeks ago, and now I’m being arrested for that. It’s hard to understand how we have a constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.’ ”
Fort, a three-time Midwest Emmy Award-winning journalist, is to receive the Ida B. Wells Award, which “recognizes an individual who has provided distinguished leadership in increasing access and opportunities for Black journalists and improving the coverage of communities of color in American media.”
Staples was part of the New York Times Editorial Board from 1990 to 2025. In 2019 he received the Pulitzer Prize for writing on the legacies of slavery with “extraordinary moral clarity,” using his Pulitzer day remarks to honor his enslaved ancestors and his great-great-grandmother Somerville Staples, who came of age in the chaos following the Nat Turner rebellion of 1831.
However, a year ago, the Times made major changes to its Opinion section, and the paper “offered current writers on the editorial board — including Mara Gay, Brent Staples, Jesse Wegman and Farah Stockman — new jobs elsewhere in the opinion pages and the Times’ newsroom, or buyout packages if they want to leave,” Max Tani wrote then for Semafor. Staples retired in November after 40 years at the Times.
BuzzFeed Shares Up After News of Sale to Allen
“Twelve years ago BuzzFeed Inc reportedly valued itself at almost $1 billion, scaring off rumored interest from the Walt Disney Company,” Sarah Fielding reported Tuesday for Fast Company.
“Fast-forward to this week and BuzzFeed is selling a controlling stake to Allen Family Digital for $120 million — $100 million of which isn’t due for five years.
“Allen Family Digital, associated with Byron Allen, will control about 52% of BuzzFeed’s outstanding shares at $3 each.
“BuzzFeed’s shares were up more than 101% to over $1.49 on Tuesday morning. The stock has been trading at under a dollar a share for most of this year.”
Eric Hayden added Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter, “The deal will add BuzzFeed and HuffPost to Allen properties that include Local Now, a free streaming app, the linear TV network of The Weather Channel (purchased for $300 million in 2018) as well as the network and website TheGrio, local TV stations in multiple cities, streaming service HBCU Go and branded properties like Cars.TV and Pets.TV.
“He also covets a subscription video on-demand platform to pair with his assets. As he revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, his next target for a full takeover is Starz — and he’s taken a notable stake so far.”
According to Bloomberg News, “Allen said he wants to turn BuzzFeed into a ‘free-TV super app’ that will combine news, weather reports and entertainment content.”
Not everyone was bearish on the news. “All of the sources I spoke with were hard-pressed to make sense of Byron’s decision to spend anything on a brand that has lost nearly all its value,” Dylan Byers wrote for Puck. “One media banker posited that it was ‘a weird way to bet $20 million.’ Another suggested that Byron may simply not understand what he’s doing. Presumably, he’s seeking relevance — but even then, it’s not clear what residual brand awareness, if any, BuzzFeed still confers.”
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) May 13, 2026
N.Y. Times’ Kristof Details Abuse of Palestinians
“The New York Times is standing by Nicholas Kristof’s article detailing how Palestinians are regularly abused in Israeli prisons after sharp criticism and calls for the column to be retracted,” Jacob Bryant reported Tuesday for the Wrap.
“Kristof’s story – titled ‘The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians‘ – details how Palestinian men and women held in Israeli prisons are facing ‘brutal sexual abuse at the hands of Israel’s prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators.’
“In wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards,” Kristof wrote.
“There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes. But in recent years they have built a security apparatus where sexual violence has become, as a United Nations report put it last year, one of Israel’s ‘standard operating procedures’ and ‘a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians.’ A report out last month, from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based advocacy group often critical of Israel, concludes that Israel employs ‘systematic sexual violence’ that is ‘widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.’
The Times of Israel reported Thursday, “Israel will sue The New York Times over an op-ed alleging widespread sexual abuse and rape against Palestinian prisoners, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a joint statement Thursday.
“They called the piece by columnist Nicholas Kristof ‘one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.’ ”
View on Threads
If no image is visible, please consider using a different browser.
‘What Did Jamaica Do to Deserve Kari Lake?’
“Jamaica is a beautiful island with white beaches; a green, mountainous interior; and, despite its small size, one of the most recognizable cultures in the world. Jamaica has exported music, fashion, and food to the farthest corners of the planet. Bob Marley alone wrote songs that hundreds of millions of people would instantly recognize as Jamaican . . . ,” Anne Applebaum wrote for the Atlantic.
“Given all of that: What did Jamaica do to deserve Kari Lake?
“Lake, a failed Senate and gubernatorial candidate from Arizona, has just been named as President Trump’s candidate for ambassador to Jamaica. If confirmed, she will arrive in Kingston with no diplomatic or political preparation, other than the 14 months she just spent running America’s foreign broadcasting agencies into the ground.
“During a chaotic tenure as the leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake tried to dismantle Voice of America, and to block funding for America’s other broadcasters, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. By doing so, Lake ceded influence to Chinese and Russian state media all over the world and undermined America’s ability to reach people during times of crisis, most notably in Venezuela and Iran.
“Lake also squandered tens of millions of dollars, perhaps hundreds of millions, of taxpayer money. Because she couldn’t be bothered to understand U.S. employment law, she tried and failed to fire hundreds of VOA staff. . . .”
In Jamaica, meanwhile, Lester Hinds wrote Tuesday, “When The Gleaner spoke with Jamaicans in the diaspora about the new ambassadorial appointment, they were guarded in their response to her nomination.
“Dr Rupert Green, a supporter of the Republican Party, told The Gleaner that he believes the president is doing her a favour with the nomination.
“ ‘It will be interesting to see how she fits into her role, if and when she is confirmed by the Senate,’ he said.
“Irwine Clare, a community leader, told The Gleaner that Jamaica is in for interesting times for the next two years if the nomination goes through.
“ ‘Unlike other appointments who brought specific skills to the position, whether as businesspeople or former elected officials, I don’t know what value Lake brings to the position,’ he said.”
Publisher Ruthie Hopkins, 83, Survived Calif. Fires
Ruthie Hopkins, who with her husband, Joe Hopkins, published The Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley Journal, the only African American-owned newspaper in California’s San Gabriel Valley, for 34 years, died May 9, the Los Angeles Sentinel reported. She was 83.
The family home was destroyed in the devastating fires that swept through Altadena and Pasadena in January 2025, and an appeal created then on a GoFundMe page said Ruthie Hopkins “has health challenges that prevent her from walking on her own.”
“As the founders of one of the region’s most influential Black-owned media outlets, the Hopkins family dedicated over three decades to documenting the triumphs and struggles of the African American community in Southern California,” the NAACP in Los Angeles said in a tribute. It quoted California State Assemblymember Chris Holden as having long championed the couple as “pillars of the Black community” and civil rights “Unsung Heroes.”
“During his tenure as Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, Holden frequently highlighted how their ‘fearless leadership’ and ‘unrelenting dedication’ to local news provided a vital voice at a time when Black perspectives were often excluded from mainstream media. . . .”
The NAACP continued, “They didn’t just report the news; they challenged the status quo. The Journal became a frontline weapon against systemic racism in city government, hiring practices, and law enforcement. Their advocacy was transformative. It was the persistent pressure from Joe and Ruthie Hopkins that paved the way for the Tournament of Roses to welcome its first African American president in 2019.”
A family obituary said that “Beyond publishing, Hopkins was an entrepreneur, author, sorority leader, and devoted missionary at Pasadena First AME Church. Her business ventures included the Pasadena Black Expo, Professional Careers Institute, and Hopkins Village — a Pasadena-based hub for small businesses and community events. . . . From empowering teenage girls to celebrating established community leaders, Hopkins dedicated her life to lifting up Black women and girls at every stage of life. . . .”
- Thembisa S. Mshaka, Andscape: How Black culture and history became collateral damage in the Altadena fire (June 26, 2025)
The next Knight-Wallace fellowship class. “One of the most exciting aspects of our work each year is creating the space for accomplished journalists to learn from and with one another,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House.
19 Win Knight-Wallace Fellowships at U. of Michigan
The Wallace House Center for Journalists and the University of Michigan Thursday announced the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows for the 2026-2027 academic year. The 19 hail from from eight countries and across the United States.
“Over the course of the academic year, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows will pursue ambitious projects exploring pressing issues, including sustainable models for rural and hyperlocal news, the collapse of institutional trust, the future of media innovation and AI, and newsroom culture and censorship,” the program said. “In addition to their individual research, they will participate in biweekly seminars and workshops with scholars, innovators, journalism leaders and social changemakers.
“In addition to the academic and intellectual resources provided, Fellows receive a $90,000 stipend, health insurance and relocation and logistical support to enable them to participate in the residential program and prioritize their fellowship research for the academic year.”
The new fellows and their fields of study are listed here.
Asian Americans’ ‘Overlooked History’; Struggle to Belong’
“Asian Americans are the fastest-growing demographic group in the U.S., but across American history, their stories and the discrimination they faced have often been overlooked,” Amna Nawaz said Wednesday on the “PBS News Hour.” “For her series, ‘America at a Crossroads,’ Judy Woodruff looks at how that past continues to shape the question of who belongs in America. . . .”
The segment was partly narrated by American-born Michael Luo, executive editor of The New Yorker.
It was one of three noteworthy ones on that evening’s program: Another told of how Uganda is accepting almost all immigrants from other African countries, even though humanitarian aid from others has been cut; the United States is giving only one-third of the aid for humanitarian issues than it did two years ago.
Another reported on the death of Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, and featured one of his friends, Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson.
- Terry Tang, Associated Press: Sandra Oh, Kumail Nanjiani and Bowen Yang are in a HBO doc on being Asian American, Pacific Islander
- Terry Tang, Associated Press: UCLA online textbook gives voice to Asian American, Pacific Islander history and cultures
