special guest panel

PANEL OVERVIEW

The panel will explore the critical issue of media censorship in the context of the second Trump administration, particularly focusing on how Latino and Latinx newsrooms have been affected. The Trump administration’s rhetoric, policies, and executive actions have directly and indirectly targeted a free press, with particular implications for communities of color. By bringing together representatives from various Latino-led SoCal media outlets, the panel will examine how censorship impacts both the creation and consumption of news, and what role Latino newsrooms play in resisting this phenomenon while serving their communities.

Anna M. Gomez

Anna M. Gomez Anna M. Gomez Anna M. Gomez

FCC Commissioner

Anna M. Gomez was sworn in as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in September 2023. She brings over 30 years of experience in domestic and international communications law and policy across public and private sectors.
Before her appointment, she led U.S. preparations for the International Telecommunication Union’s WRC-23 and previously served as Deputy Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), where she oversaw the digital TV transition and broadband efforts for first responders. Gomez also held senior roles at the FCC, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration.
Born in Orlando and raised in Bogotá, Colombia and New Jersey, Commissioner Gomez holds a B.A. in Pre-Law from Penn State and a J.D. from George Washington University. She is dedicated to promoting affordable connectivity, innovation, consumer protection, and inclusive access for all communities, including rural and Latino populations. She champions First Amendment protections and supports diversity, localism, and competition in media policy.

Free Press

Jessica Gonzalez

Jessica Gonzalez Jessica Gonzalez Jessica Gonzalez

Jessica leads efforts to change our media system so that it can support a just and multiracial democracy. A public-policy lawyer by training, Jessica knows that the biggest problems in our media can be solved only by organizing and building power with ordinary people.
Jessica cut her teeth representing civil-rights and pro-democracy groups in regulatory proceedings and appellate court cases as a staff attorney and teaching fellow in a Georgetown Law clinic. She then ran the federal policy shop and coordinated campaigns against racist and xenophobic media programming at the National Hispanic Media Coalition. In her two decades in the field, Jessica has advanced policy efforts at the intersection of media, tech, racial justice and democracy. She regularly appears as an expert witness before Congress and in the media, with press appearances on the BBC, CBS, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post and more.
Jessica co-led Stop Hate for Profit’s Facebook advertising boycott, which pushed over 1,000 advertisers to drop Facebook in protest of its lax enforcement of rules to stop hate and protect democracy ahead of the 2020 election. The effort forced Facebook to deplatform Q-Anon and showed the tech industry that it will be held accountable for destabilizing democracy. Recently she co-led the Stop Toxic Twitter campaign in response to Elon Musk’s reckless leadership, pushing more than half of Twitter’s main advertisers to leave the platform over his re-platforming of white supremacists and Big Lie conspiracists.
Jessica grew up in a working-class union family in Los Angeles. She’s been a grocery-store clerk, a public-school teacher, a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School and a Ricardo Salinas Scholar at the Aspen Institute. She sits on the Real Facebook Oversight Board and the board of directors of America’s Voice and the Latino Media Collaborative, and is a former board member of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and the Media and Democracy Coalition. When Jessica isn’t at work, you can find her running, paddling and boarding through nature, reading fiction and seeking adventure and relaxation with her spouse and their kids.

Ben Camacho

Ben Camacho Ben Camacho Ben Camacho

The Southlander

Ben Camacho is a multi-award winning investigative journalist and documentary photographer. His work focuses on state-sponsored violence and the communities impacted by it. He was sued twice by the City of Los Angeles in a failed effort to censor public records.
He chairs the legal committee at IWW's Freelance Journalists Union, where they organize to create better working conditions for freelancers across the country. He co-founded West Side Storytellers, a documentary production team whose flagship project received the Charles Rappleye award from the Los Angeles Press Club.
He has spoken at Yale, USC, Cal State Northridge, Santa Ana College and the University of La Verne about press freedom. He is featured in a documentary titled "Flashpoint: Protests, Policing and The Press" produced by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
In 2023, he was named a "Distinguished Journalist" by the Society of Professional Journalists-LA.
He enjoys street photography, shows and breathing clean air.

Esperanza guevara

Esperanza guevara Esperanza guevara Esperanza guevara

Managing Director, LMC
/ Call to Order

esperanza@latinomedia.org
Earlier this year, Esperanza joined LMC as its Managing Director. In this role, she oversees the organization's operations, fundraising, and program development. Previously, Esperanza served as Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). She has also worked for the offices of U.S. Congressman Jimmy Gomez, Tony Cárdenas, and worked on various electoral campaigns. Esperanza received a B.A. from Stanford University in Science, Technology, and Society and is also a 2012-2013 Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange fellowship recipient.

Gustavo Arellano

Gustavo Arellano Gustavo Arellano Gustavo Arellano

LA Times / Moderator

Gustavo Arellano is author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and has been an essayist and reporter for various publications and a frequent commentator on radio and television. He was formerly editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, and penned the award-winning “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answered any and all questions about America’s spiciest and largest minority. Gustavo is the recipient of awards ranging from the Los Angeles Press Club President’s Award to an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic,” and was part of the Los Angeles Times team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.

Deborah Drooz

Deborah Drooz Deborah Drooz Deborah Drooz

Drooz Law

A renowned authority on defamation, entertainment and commercial litigation, Deborah Drooz has successfully argued matters before courts throughout the country. She has obtained favorable litigation outcomes for public figure and corporate clients including the Anschutz Entertainment Group, Berry Gordy, Aretha Franklin, Martha Stewart, David LaChapelle, Steve Wynn and others, and is responsible for a number of precedent-setting appellate decisions.
Ms. Drooz is an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School and has written and lectured on topics relating to First Amendment litigation, entertainment industry litigation, and rights of privacy and publicity.

Michelle Zacarias

Michelle Zacarias Michelle Zacarias Michelle Zacarias

CALÓ News, Local News Fellowship

michelle@latinomedia.org
Michelle Zacarias is an award-winning journalist and Local News Reporter for CALÓ News. She teaches at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and currently resides in Southern California. Michelle is passionate about covering Latine/x issues, anti-racism movements, queer identities, marginalized communities and abolition. She has previously written for Teen Vogue, The Triibe, Latina Mag, People’s World, and more. In 2018, Michelle was awarded the Saul Miller Excellence in Journalism Award for her contributions to the field. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and her Masters in Studies of Law at USC Gould School of Law.