It started as a selection of the best muse during the Press Freedom Week opening parade. Today, the Miss Press Freedom has evolved into a more significant and certainly a much-anticipated event in the annual Cebu Press Freedom Week every September.
The idea was hatched among lifestyle and entertainment writers back in 2004 with the aim to save more time of the opening program where the “pageant” used to be integrated. That time, the muses of the different media organizations were presented in front, made to answer casual questions and the winner is picked a few minutes later.
But the thrill of a more serious selection that is independent from the opening ceremonies must have provided the impetus that propelled the search for Miss Press Freedom achieve the degree of beauty pageant legitimacy it now enjoys.
Since it started in 2004 and skipping only the next two years, the Miss Press Freedom has beckoned the curiosity of media practitioners and non-media practitioners alike. How could it not, the pageant, albeit still simple, has become a breeding ground of potential beauty queens with real physical beauty and brains.
Not to mention the fact that the Miss Press Freedom is only beauty search whose candidates come exclusively from media organizations and, more often than not, are themselves media practitioners.
With much bigger support pouring in, the Miss Press Freedom is becoming to be Cebu’s next big thing!