MANILA, Philippines — The Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines with its partners will hold a forum on "Gaps and Gasps in Peace Reportage" on Wednesday.
The Peace Forum, held at Escaler Hall of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, is linked to the EU Peace Journalism Awards which was launched in Cotabato City last year.
READ: EU launches Peace Journalism Awards in Philippines
Seasoned peace journalists such as Ed Lingao of ABC-5, Veronica Uy Vitug of Interaksyon, Joe Torres of the Photojournalists' Center of the Philippines and Rorie Fajardo of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting will share their experiences in peace reportage.
Assistant Secretary Rose Romero of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, Programme Manager Edoardo Manfredini of the EU Delegation to the Philippines and Dean Filomeno Aguilar of the School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University will provide some introductory remarks.
EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux said journalists have a significant role to play in the debate about the peace process.
Through the Awards, the EU and its partners want to acknowledge that Philippine journalists can be agents of peaceful social transformation through balanced, responsible, culturally-sensitive and conflict-sensitive reporting on peace and conflict stories.
Journalists have until 31 May 2015 to submit their entries to email address: DELEGATION-PHILIPPINES-PPI@eeas.europa.eu.
The Journalism Awards are open to all Philippines-based journalists as well as campus journalists with the following categories:
- Written text published in print media
- Online and broadcast media
- Photojournalism
- Campus journalism
- Government advocacy peace projects
The Grand Winner goes to Brussels this year to meet with peace stakeholders and with fellow journalists while finalists will receive special gifts and certificates.
All the Grand Finalists will also participate in a public forum to be held this year.
Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:
- Relevance to the topic - 30 percent
- News value/impact - 30 percent
- Investigative depth - 25 percent
- Professional quality and style - 15 percent
The Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ ) is co-hosting the Peace Forum in line with its goal to serve as a center for continuing education for Asian journalists.
The ACFJ is a unit of the Department of Communication of the Ateneo de Manila University, and was founded in 2000 as a partnership project of the university and the German political foundation, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
Philstar.com is a partner of the Peace Journalism Awards, the first of its kind by the European Union.
The EU Peace Journalism Awards are presented by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, partners, the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, The Photojournalists' Center of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism, the Mindanao State University – Iligan Instiute of Technology - IPDM, philstar.com and the Center for Community Journalism and Development.
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