The National Press Club And Other Journalism Advocates Deplore Attempt To Deport Press Freedom Award Winner

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, its Journalism Institute and other advocates for press freedom and immigration justice urge the U.S. Department of Justice to suspend efforts to deport Emilio Gutierrez, a winner of the club's Press Freedom Award.

Late on Friday, Robert S. Hough, an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, refused to stay the deportation of Gutierrez from the United States – where he and his son fled after his investigative reporting led to threats against himself and his family. Gutierrez requested asylum in the United States:  it took eight years for him to get a hearing. 

"Gutierrez fled his country because his reporting jeopardized him and his family and then faced years of bureaucratic indifference before now being threatened with removal," said NPC President Jeff Ballou. "He deserves better from a country that has enshrined protections for the press in the First Amendment of its Constitution."

Deportation proceedings against Gutierrez were initiated Thursday — six weeks after Gutierrez appeared at the National Press Club to accept a Freedom of the Press award, one of the club's highest honors, on behalf of his country's beleaguered press corps.

At the NPC's request, Gutierrez represented all of his Mexican colleagues, as an exemplar of their tenacity and courage as reporters are killed, kidnapped and forced into hiding in retaliation for their reporting on drug cartels and government corruption.

He and his Mexican associates "find ourselves immersed in a great darkness," Gutierrez said through a translator.

"Our hope is that U.S. officials will provide a beacon in that darkness, in keeping with the country's long tradition of advancing press freedom, by granting Gutierrez the asylum he has requested in the United States," said Barbara Cochran, president of the board for the non-profit National Press Club Journalism Institute. "Sending him back to a country that is the most dangerous in the western hemisphere for journalists could amount to a death sentence."

The National Press Club, the National Press Club Journalism Institute and the undersigned organizations appeal to the Department of Justice to reconsider this deportation order.  We also ask the Trump Administration and all members of Congress to let the Department know that this case not only puts an individual reporter in danger, but also could have a chilling effect on truth-telling everywhere.

Jeff Ballou, president
The National Press Club

Barbara Cochran, board president
NPC Journalism Institute

Yvonne Loew, national president
Asian American Journalists Association

John Donnelly, president
Military Writers and Editors

Sarah Glover, president
National Association of Black Journalists

Sandy K. Johnson, president
National Press Foundation

Melissa Lytle, president
National Press Photographers Association

Joshua Hatch, president
Online News Association

Suzanne Nossel, executive director
PEN America

Dan Shelley, executive director
Radio Television and Digital News Association

Margaux Ewen, acting North American
director, Reporters Without Borders

Bruce Brown, executive director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Mark Hamrick, president
Society of American Business Editors and Writers

Alberto B. Mendoza, executive director 
National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Contact: Kathy Kiely, National Press Club Journalism Institute Press Freedom Fellow, [email protected]

John Donnelly, chair, National Press Club First Amendment Team, [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club