Advocate Highlight

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

2021-22 HRAP Participant Daniel Villatoro was shortlisted for the "2022 Journalist of the Year Award" by One Young World. The shortlisted candidates have been selected due to the considerable impact they have made in the journalism sector. 

This award "recognises five of the world's most outstanding journalists between the ages of 18 - 35, who are using their stories to have a positive impact on people in their communities and countries. Through their courageous work, these candidates highlight the importance [of] having diverse voices in media." 

Daniel Villatoro is the Coordinator of the Latin American LGBTI Journalism Initiative at the International Women's Media Foundation. The program trains and supports media outlets on how reporting can combat prejudice. His areas of advocacy are storytelling, open data, and social innovation, in addition to addressing representation and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. His book “The Registry of Violence Against LGBTI People: Datification and Protocols” won the Latin American Open Data Initiative Call for New Voices. He is a founding member of Visibles, a growing LGBTI rights organization in Guatemala, and served as its first Executive Director until late 2021. In 2020 he founded Impronta, a Central American queer culture magazine. In the past, his work as an investigative journalist has been awarded multiple prizes (including Inter-American Press Society, TRACE, Gabriel García Marquez). His campaigns and tech ideas have also been recognized with innovation and sexual and reproductive rights awards. With Estudio Abierto, his consultancy firm, he has worked for Internews, IREX, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republic Institute, NORC at the University of Chicago and the United Nations Development Programme and as a trainer for the Organization of American States, the Interamerican Development Bank, and the Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas.