In the community

New grant helps Enterprise translate election news into Spanish

The Malheur Enterprise is posting Spanish-language versions of its election stories online, thanks in part to a grant from the American Press Institute.

The award comes from the Institute’s Trusted Elections Network Fund. The Enterprise was one of 11 news organizations selected from a pool of 100 applicants to receive the fund’s latest round of micro-grants.

The recipients include newspapers and radio stations across the nation, from the Tampa Bay Times in Florida to the Nevada Independent in Las Vegas. The funded projects include efforts to dispel election misinformation, inform voters about voting deadlines and ballot processes, create candidate and issues guides, and introduce young voters to the process.

In its project, the Enterprise is translating election articles online to reach the Spanish-speaking residents of Malheur County. The intent is break through a common barrier to their participation in political and government circles.

“This is part of our continuing effort to find ways to serve a portion of our community too often overlooked,” said Les Zaitz, publisher of the Enterprise. “We know there is no place for Spanish speakers to go for independent local news and we hope this helps fill that gap.”

The Enterprise retained Yadira Lopez, a former Enterprise staffer now working for the Miami Herald, to do the translations of the stories, which are available at malheurenterprise.com.