Following months of criticism that led to the cancellation of subsequent 12 months’s Golden Globe Awards telecast by NBC, the group that arms out the awards, the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation, introduced Thursday that it was instituting a collection of reforms.
The group, a nonprofit, adopted a brand new set of bylaws which are geared toward revamping its management, rising and diversifying its membership and stabilizing it to make sure the way forward for the profitable awards program.
The affiliation, a comparatively small group of roughly 85 journalists who vote on the Golden Globes, has lengthy been scrutinized over questions on its ethics, funds and journalistic credentials. However this 12 months, following a Los Angeles Instances investigation, a lawsuit and a rising outcry from the film and tv industries, NBC canceled the 2022 awards telecast, making swift modifications mandatory for the group’s survival.
The group mentioned Thursday that greater than two thirds of its members had voted in favor of the brand new bylaws, which it mentioned would make the group extra accountable.
The principles name for increasing the group’s board of administrators to incorporate individuals from exterior the group. The affiliation will even carry on a brand new chief govt in addition to heads of finance, human sources and a chief range officer.
The reforms additionally cleared away a number of of the obstacles to membership the group had lengthy had in place. For years, critics mentioned that the affiliation’s membership utility course of was opaque, biased and usually meant to maintain most individuals out. However the affiliation mentioned it might now enable any journalist who want to be a part of to use, and that new members will probably be chosen by a credentials committee that will probably be comprised primarily of nonmembers.
All current members — a few of whom have had their journalistic credentials questioned over time — might want to reapply to stay, the group mentioned. All members will probably be required to signal a brand new code of conduct, and won’t be allowed to simply accept promotional supplies or items from individuals related to motion pictures and tv applications.
“Three months in the past, we made a promise to decide to transformational change and with this vote we stored the final and most vital promise in reimagining the H.F.P.A. and our position within the business,” Ali Sar, the group’s present board president, mentioned in a press release. “All of those promised reforms can function business benchmarks and permit us to as soon as once more accomplice meaningfully with Hollywood transferring ahead.”
Over the past a number of months, the affiliation has gotten enter on the way it ought to change from numerous stakeholders, and the reforms introduced on Thursday didn’t embrace a few of the bolder proposals put forth, reminiscent of creating a derivative, for-profit Golden Globes firm.
It additionally didn’t set particular targets for enlarging its membership or diversifying its ranks, although officers have mentioned they purpose to extend membership by not less than 50 %. (The group has come beneath fireplace for one explicit discovering of The Los Angeles Instances report: That though the group has greater than 80 members, none of them are Black.)
A few of the affiliation’s most necessary enterprise companions reacted positively to the modifications that have been introduced.
In a press release, NBC mentioned it was “inspired by the passage of the amended bylaws” and known as it “a optimistic step ahead” that “alerts the H.F.P.A.’s willingness to do the work mandatory for significant change.”
The assertion didn’t focus on the standing of a 2023 Golden Globes telecast.
Dick Clark Productions, the decades-long producer of the Golden Globes, equally mentioned it applauded the adoption of the brand new bylaws, calling the coverage revisions “necessary” and expressing optimism about subsequent steps.
“We look ahead to seeing continued urgency, dedication and optimistic change,” the manufacturing firm mentioned, “with the intention to create a extra numerous, equitable, inclusive and clear future.”
Brooks Barnes contributed reporting.
