Note: This event has been postponed. Rescheduling information to come.

Diversity issues can be highly controversial in both news coverage and newsroom staffing, with some problems arising right here in San Diego.

Whether diversity exists in news coverage and in newsroom staffing will be explored by a Nov. 9 panel with participants from each of the area's four professional journalism organizations.

"Some think of the concept of diversity only in terms of people of color, but in the SPJ — both locally and nationally — it also includes gays and lesbians and those with disabilities," says SDSPJ's diversity chair, Leo Laurence. He also is a member of SPJ's National Committee on Diversity.

Don Chareunsy of the Asian-American Journalists Association will be participating; as will Hiram Soto, vice president of the San Diego chapter of the California Chicano News Media Association. Tentatively, Tim Carr, president of the San Diego Association of Black Journalists will serve on the panel, and a participant yet-to-be-announced will be there from the local chapter of the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Journalists.

The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9. Light refreshments will be served before the panel begins at 7 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium at The San Diego Union-Tribune, 350 Camino de la Reina, San Diego.

Students are welcome, and donations are appreciated.

Please RSVP to chapter president Jennifer Croshaw.