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Updated: Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Published: Monday, August 6, 2007 |
Contact:
NABJ Communications
(866) 479-NABJ
Chauncey Bailey: A Journalist and a Friend
NABJ saddened, outraged over the murder of veteran editor in Oakland
Las Vegas (August 6, 2007) The National Association of Black Journalists is deeply troubled by the recent murder of Chauncey Bailey, longtime writer and activist in the San Francisco Bay Area and editor of the Oakland Post.
Bailey, 57, was gunned down last week in front of the Alameda County courthouse. Oakland Police say they have a 19-year-old suspect in custody who has confessed to the homicide. Bailey had been working on a series of stories about Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland. The suspect had worked at the bakery.
If true, it is a tragedy that such a positive, intense and hard-working spirit could be silenced like that, simply for doing his journalism, said Bryan Monroe, NABJ President and editorial director at Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. Its just not right... to be killed while pursuing the truth, it's just not right. In America, journalists have to be able to do their jobs without fearing that they'll be shot dead on the street corner. Our society has got to be stronger than that. Truth has got to be stronger than that."
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Bailey may be the first U.S. journalist to be targeted and killed domestically in nearly 15 years.
Bob Butler, President of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association and friend of Baileys added: African Americans have a lost a champion and the world has lost an outstanding journalist.
Bailey will be remembered during the 32nd NABJ Convention and Career Fair this week at Ballys Las Vegas. For more information, got to www.nabj.org .
An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with more than 4,100 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.
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