UH news staff will undergo training
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
An increase in the amount of both diversity and journalism training will occur among the student newspaper staff at the University of Hawai'i after a conflict over several cartoons that were criticized as racist in Ka Leo, the student newspaper.
The Board of Publications, which publishes Ka Leo, has approved three recommendations that would mandate training for the board and its program heads; specific training for all cartoonists before their work is published; and oversight of all cartoons by two editors before publication.
The task of drafting exactly what kind of "specific training" cartoonists will undergo has been assigned to the personnel committee of the board, headed by Paulo Maurin. The committee has been asked to come up with recommendations by May 31.
"I think this goes along the lines of what we at Ka Leo were discussing internally as well — more training to better prepare us and our staff in the position of creating a daily newspaper," said Lori Ann Saeki, Ka Leo editor in chief.
Saeki said that a large percentage of students who work on Ka Leo aren't in the journalism program and may not have the background that such training provides.
"What I'll recommend to the next editor is more training and to keep up with it through the school year," she said. "Because it (Ka Leo) doesn't fall under journalism, we do need to provide all types of training that young, developing journalists need to become better news people."
Saeki said she wants the training to include basic techniques regarding writing and interviewing as well as ethics training "and trying to put yourself into the perspective of your readers."
Concerns were raised in March by the Afro American Lawyers Association of Hawai'i after a cartoon by cartoonist Casey Ishitani referred to the NAACP as the "National Alliance of Assailants of Colored People." The cartoon was published in mid-February during Black History Month.
The publications board set up a subcommittee to investigate and asked Ka Leo to suspend publication of the cartoonist's work until the investigation was complete. With only about a week and a half left of Ka Leo issues this semester, the cartoonist's work will not appear again until fall, and after he has undergone the mandated training.
Last year more than two dozen students complained about cartoons by Ishitani that said Hitler "wasn't all that bad a guy," plus others that expressed derogatory comments about homosexuals and Jews.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
