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Category: Media

Lolarga and Silverio win 1st Chit Estella awards

Published by Ellen on December 8, 2012


By Eimor P. Santos, VERA Files

In death, Vera Files trustee and journalism professor Lourdes “Chit” Estella Simbulan continues to champion human rights campaign in the country.

The 1st Chit Estella Journalism Awards honored the best journalistic reports on human rights, Dec. 7. This is in line with the celebration of the National Human Rights Consciousness Week with the theme, “My Voice Counts in Ending Impunity: I Work for Human Rights-Based Governance”.

Babeth Lolarga
his year’s awardees were Ina Alleco Silverio of Bulatlat.com for her online story, “Three months after Sendong, Iligan residents still far from rebuilding their lives” and Elizabeth Lolarga of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for her print story, “365 political prisoners go on hunger strike”.

Links to winning stories:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/107101/356-political-prisoners-go-on-hunger-strike

http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/03/16/three-months-after-sendong-iligan-residents-still-far-from-rebuilding-their-lives/

The works of Silverio and Lolarga were chosen among seven other finalists, four from online and two from print which were all published between October 1, 2011 and October 1, 2012. The winners each received P10,000 and a trophy, funded by the Simbulan-Estella family, and co-presented by the University of the Philippines Department of Journalism and Vera Files.

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Chit Estella Journalism awards focus on human rights reports

Published by Ellen on December 6, 2012

Congratulations to the winners in the 1st Chit Estella Journalism awards.

The awardees were Elizabeth Lolarga of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for her print story, “365 political prisoners go on hunger strike” and Ina Alleco Silverio of Bulatlat.com for her online story, “Three months after Sendong, Iligan residents still far from rebuilding their lives.”

The winners of the 1st Chit Estella Journalism Awards will be known Friday (Dec 7) in an event at the UP College of Mass Communications Auditorium that will also include a Memorial Lecture.

The Chit Estella Awards honor the best journalistic report on human rights in print and online, published between October 1, 2011 and October 1, 2012. Each awardee will be given a cash prize of P10,000 and a trophy.

This year’s finalists for online media are:

-Three months after Sendong, Iligan residents still far from rebuilding their lives by Ina Alleco Silverio

-Jonas Burgos, gentle and brave by Ronalyn Olea

-Privatization of government hospitals, further marginalizing the poor in the name of profit by Anne Marxze Umil

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Maguindanao massacre on our mind

Published by Ellen on November 25, 2012

The media community in Cagayan de Oro. Photo from Froilan Gallardo’s FB
The 2009 Maguindanao massacre and the sad fact that justice continues to elude the victims were foremost in the minds of the delegates to the 9th Spectrum Fellowship National Campus Journalism conference held at Mambukal resort in Negros Occidental.

The Spectrum is the official student media corps of the University of St La Salle. There were about 60 participants in the conference coming not only from De La Salle but also from Far Eastern University, University of Sto. Tomas and University of San Agustin in Iloilo City.

They had an interesting range of topics. I came on the second day (Friday) and I caught up with the lectures of Ernie Sarmiento, formerly chief photographer of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on photojournalism ethics, Philippine Star columnist Cito Beltran on opinion writing, GMA-7 (Iloilo)’s Rexcel Sorza on social media ethics, and RA Rivera on connecting through video.

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Aquino berating media is becoming boring

Published by Ellen on November 15, 2012

Berating media has become a habit for Aquino.
Why am I not surprised that the Freedom of Information bill in the House of Representatives has been declared dead in the 15th Congress by press freedom advocates?

Simple: President Aquino does not support it.

Despite the fact that he was product of media hype, he does not understand the role of media in governance and in strengthening democracy. Although he said when he was campaigning for the presidency in 2010 that he was going to support the FOI bill, he never included it among his administration’s priority measures.

Look back to his statements the past two years:

In Oct. 2011, before Southeast Asian leaders, Aquino said: “You know, having a freedom of information act sounds so good and noble but at the same time—I think you’ll notice that here in this country—there’s a tendency of getting information and not really utilizing it for the proper purposes.”

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Making sure we got the President correctly on internet libel

Published by Ellen on October 18, 2012

Aquino with foreign correspondents
This is what President Aquino said at the forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association in the Philippines Wednesday on internet libel in the Cybercrime Law which he signed last Sept. 12:

Question: My question is in regards to Cybercrime Law. Just in regards to your mantra under your term to improve human rights in the Philippines. How does opening the past and allowing people to be jailed for posting defamatory comments online improve human rights situation in the Philippines?

Aquino: Well, can I just state for the record: as the Chief Executive of this land when the proposed measure was brought before me, I had basically two options. Under the Constitution, if I agree with the same I sign it into law. If I disagree with the same, I veto everything. I cannot… I only have a line veto on the budget measure. I don’t have a line veto on other measures.

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SC TRO: a very much welcome respite

Published by Ellen on October 9, 2012

The power of an informed and vigilant people. Photo by VERA Files’ Mario Ignacio.
Smiles, laughter and relief suddenly replaced the atmosphere of anger and outrage among rallyists when the information from inside the Supreme Court was shared that the justices unanimously voted to issue a 120-day temporary restraining order (TRO) on Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

“We did it!”, enthused one rallyist.

Yes, another demonstration of the power of a vigilant public. A total of 15 petitions were filed with the Supreme Court questioning the legality of some provisions of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, particularly the part on online libel.

The 120-day TRO gives us respite and should allow us to celebrate Christmas with lesser stress. That should give us time to recharge when the battle resumes. The SC will hold oral arguments on the controversial law on January 15, 2013.

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An appeal to the SC to stop Cybercrime law

Published by Ellen on September 30, 2012

Last Friday, I joined five other persons in asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the implementation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
We asked the High Court to declare Sections 4 (c) [4], 5, 6, 7 and 19 of the Act unconstitutional.

Thanks to Inquirer for Harry’s photo.
My fellow petitioners are Davao-based radio broadcaster radio broadcaster Alexander Adonis, my VERA Files colleague Ma. Gisela Ordenes-Cascolan, lawyers/bloggers Harry Roque, Romel Bagares, and Gilbert Andres, legal officer of Media Defense Southeast Asia.
Alexander Adonis in blue during hearing of his libel suit in 2004. Photo by Barry Ohaylan of Davao Today

Named respondents because they are the ones who will be implementing the law which President Aquino signed last Sept. 12 and took effect Sept. 27 are: Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas III, National Bureau of Investigation director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas, Philippine National Police chief Nicanor Bartolome, and acting Director-General Denis Villorente of the Information and Communications Technology Office-Department of Science and Technology.

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Chit Estella Journalism Awards

Published by Ellen on September 15, 2012

Keeping alive her ideals.
Nominations to the 1st Chit Estella Journalism Awards are now open.

The family of Chit (Chit Estella-Simbulan), who died in a vehicle accident May 13, 2011, has set up the Journalism Awards in cooperation with VERA Files and the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications.

Chit, at the time of her death was a journalism professor at UP-Diliman and trustee of VERA Files, a group that we, together with four other media colleagues – Yvonne Chua, Booma Cruz, Luz Rimban and Jennifer Santiago, set up in March 2008. VERA Files undertakes in-depth reporting on current issues and conducts journalism training.

The Chit Estella Journalism Awards, which are intended to keep alive Chit’s ideals of excellent and principled journalism, will honor the best journalistic report in print and on-line media.

The theme for this year’s contest is human rights as enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

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