Even as we applauded this year’s awardees of the Jaime V. Ongpin Excellence in Journalism , we were dismayed to hear that this may be the last awards for investigative and explanatory reports.
But we are glad to know that the Canadian government will continue with its Marshall McLuhan fellowship that is usually given to the top prize winner.
Founded in memory of Canadian media guru, Marshall Mc Luhan (“The medium is the message” and “The global village”) the fellowship sends the journalist on a two-week speaking tour of Canada and arranges speaking engagements in the Philippines.
We have our own criticisms of the screening by CMFR of finalists the past years (this may sound ungrateful being one of the awardees in1998) but there is no dispute that it is the most prestigious award in the Philippine journalism.
Melinda Q. de Jesus, executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the administrative and technical secretariat of the JVOAEJ, said during the awarding ceremonies last Thursday that they will re-evaluate the JVOAEJ program that has seen a number of innovations since its start in 1990.
De Jesus mentioned problems in funding which organizations supported foreign institutions face nowadays due to the global financial crisis. We imagine that competition for grants from the usual sources of in the United States and Europe must have become very stiff.
But what De Jesus underscored was the lack of growth in field of investigative reporting. She said there is a wide gap in the quality of investigative reports between the few excellent pieces and the rest of articles that have seen print in recent years,
Vergel Santos, CMFR trustee, said the few investigative pieces worthy of awards are done by the same people that have been winning the competition every year. He said the awards may have inspired many journalists but since their work don’t make the grade with JVOAEJ, they stop aspiring for it.
To close the gap, Santos said, “This would require skills training.”
Established in 1990 in order of the businessman who believed in the power of the press to advance good governance and promote democracy, the JVOAEJ aims to encourage the practice of in-depth reporting and the values of integrity and journalism ethics. Initially the awards were limited to investigative reports that exposes truths that the public should know. Later,the awards included explanatory reports “to encourage journalists to explain a phenomenon, a program or process, clarifying issues and developments reflected in the news.”
“These two kinds of reporting help create an informed without which there can be no real democracy,” CMFR said.
Since 2008, the JVOAEJ has applied a thematic focus in selection, narrowing the evaluation to articles on the most urgent and most important issues of the year: governance and corruption, human rights, and the environment. This year, the judges added a new themes: financial and economic crisis.
The winners were VERA Files’ “Quedancor swine program another fertilizer scam” by Diosa Labiste, Luz Rimban and Yvonne Chua and “Aid inflow sparks scandals for GMA, debt woes for RP” by Roel Landingin of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Each received a plaque of distinction and a cash prize of P70,000. The Mc Luhan fellowship was awarded to Labiste, the first community journalist (Iloilo) , to win it.
Three articles won a plaque of merit and a cash prize of P25,000: A policy of betrayal by Miriam Grace Go of abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak; Squatters and the City by Cherry Ann T. Lim and Rene H. Martel of Sun.Star Cebu; and “Less than 10 people in plot, 5 core, 5 others ‘in the know’ by Fe Zamora of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The finalists , who won for the authors a plaque and a cash prize of P10,000 were “Political Killings not official but an unintended policy” by Nikko Dizon, Jocelyn R. Uy and Leila B. Salaverria of the Philippine Daily Inquirer;US subprime crisis:why we should worry by Des Ferriols by The Philippine Star; and “The many faces of bribery by Aries Rufo of abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.
The JVOAEJ also gave out two plaques of special mention to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for “The NBN-ZTE controversy report” and Newsbreak for “The big dig.”
Despite De Jesus’ notice, we still fervently hope the Jaime V. Ongpin’s tradition of excellence in journalism will continue next year and the following years.
Congratulations, Vera Files.
I hope de Jesus finds a way to continue the awards. Ay kung yung mga policemen and others are being given awards, investigative journalists pa.
With Marshall McLuhan Fellowship from the Canadian government, that could still be a good incentive to continue investigative reporting, besides of course the patriotic angle.
Can’t the locals, like the big national dailies, the civic clubs and big corporations share the sponsorship? If the government wants to improve its image it could give its share but that is a wishful thinking…suntok sa hangin.
There is also the use of the computer technology as opposed to the use of traditional journalistic media which attributed to the decline of subscriptions that consequently lower the business capacity of these media. On the other hand, the government doesn’t have anything to gain in sharing the sponsorship other than creating a facade of preserving press freedom that they really want to discourage and suppress in reality.
There is also the use of the computer technology as opposed to the use of traditional journalistic media which attributed to the decline of subscriptions that consequently lower the business capacity of these media. On the other hand, the government doesn’t have anything to gain in sharing the sponsorship other than creating the facade of encouraging the preservation of press freedom that they really want to suppress in reality.
Sorry didn’t mean to double post..;p