Filipino journalists join media self-regulation program

MANILA, Philippines —  Eight Filipino journalists, including The Philippine STAR reporter Janvic Mateo, recently joined a two-week fellowship on media self-regulation in Stockholm, Sweden.

The fellowship held last month was part of the year-long International Training Program (ITP) that aims to promote media development in a democratic framework.

The international program, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, provides a forum and platform for constructive and creative dialogue between high-level representatives from media, government and civil society on how to improve self-regulation and regulatory frameworks for media.

Other Filipino journalists who were part of this year’s ITP include Francis Allan Angelo (The Daily Guardian), Arlene Burgos (ABS-CBN News), Lita Jane Cadalig (Kordilyera Media-Citizen Council), Bea Cupin (Rappler), Mia Embalzado-Mateo (Cebu Citizens Press Council and University of the Philippines Cebu), Paul Nicholas Soriano (National Union of Journalists of the Philippines) and Catherine Valente (The Manila Times).

Gary Mariano, former chairman of the Department of Communication of the De La Salle University, joined the team as its country facilitator.

The Philippine team was joined by journalists from Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam.

During the fellowship, the participants took part in sessions with various representatives from the government, civil society, Swedish media and media self-regulation bodies, including former Swedish media ombudsman Ola Sigvardsson.

They also visited several newsrooms and met with journalism students at Stockholm University.

As part of the program, the fellows worked together in country teams to develop the change initiatives that they would implement upon return to their respective countries.

The Philippine team agreed to build on the initiative of the previous ITP batch, which initiated the establishment of local media councils in different parts of the country.

“As the previous ITP Philippines team sustains its efforts in establishing media-citizen councils across the nation, the 2022-2023 team aims to enhance public awareness on the existence of such councils,” the Philippine team said.

“By promoting media industry collaboration and securing support from various stakeholders, the country team aims to improve the visibility of media-citizen councils and bring them, along with the available self-regulatory mechanisms, closer to the public the media claims to serve,” they added.

The team stressed that multisectoral participation in local media councils “is essential as the councils’ purpose is to interact with its audience.”

“It will also pave the way to include in the membership and operations vital entities such as lawyers’ groups, civil society organizations and the Commission on Human Rights, among others,” the group said.

A multi-stakeholder conference to be hosted by the local media-citizen council in Iloilo is tentatively set in September.