PROTEST FOR SEX TRAFFICKING REPORTS

This is being sent to all of the AAJA (Asian American Journalists Association) members:

Korean Americans' Protest of SF Chronicle Sex Trafficking Series Yields Results

AAJA acknowledges the impact community initiatives have on media coverage.
A four-part series, "Diary of a Sex Slave," recently published in the San Francisco Chronicle has caught the ire of members, friends and supporters of the Bay Area's Korean American community. The article by Meredith May, chronicles the life and experiences of a South Korean woman who was lured and forced into prostitution in San Francisco by sex traffickers.
Community members said that the article about one individual "gave disproportionate emphasis to a small immigrant segment of the overall Korean American population in San Francisco and California, the vast majority of whom are well-educated professionals and hardworking families." They also said that the series includes many cultural inaccuracies and paints a distorted picture of Busan, South Korea - the hometown of the article's main subject.
More than 40 Korean American organizations and individuals signed on to a letter-response to the series, demanding a public apology from the Chronicle. The open letter, published in Asian Week, (see link below), was also printed by the San Francisco Chronicle in its editorial and opinion page. Community representatives also met with the paper's management and editorial staff to present a list of demands. AAJA asked San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein to comment on the meeting with the community representatives, and he had this to say.
Links
Asian Week: An Open Letter to San Franciscans
Coalition statement and demands
Asian Week: Emil Guillermo: Sex Not Necessary to Be Slave to Immigration

To read the whole series, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/sextrafficking/