Eight journalists from the Philippines joined a two week-long media training in Stockholm, Sweden— aimed at building real change towards a more efficient and sustainable planning and implementation of media self-regulation.
Daily Guardian editor-in-chief Francis Allan L. Angelo along with Catherine Valente of The Manila Times, Janvic Mateo of Philippine Star, Bea Cupin of Rappler, Lita Jane Cadalig of the Kordilyera Media-Citizen Council, Mia Embalzado-Mateo of Cebu Citizens Press Council and University of the Philippines Cebu, Arlene Burgos of ABS-CBN News, and Paul Soriano of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines joined other participants from Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam during the International Training Program (ITP) on media development in a Democratic Framework Asia 4 from March 5-15, 2023.
Gary Mariano, former chairman of the Department of Communication of the De La Salle University, joined the team as its country facilitator.
The international program, organized by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), 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-regulatory and regulatory frameworks for media.
During the training, the fellows worked together in country teams, supported by a national facilitator in each country and assisted by international experts (thematic mentors).
To contribute to the development of self-regulatory frameworks for the media sector in the country, the participants from the Philippines aim to “enhance public awareness over existing local media-citizen councils, and mainstream utilization of self-regulatory mechanisms.”
With a project title: “Media-Citizens Council: Front & Center,” the Filipino participants envisioned “a media-literate citizenry aware of existing media councils as a proactive self-regulatory mechanism geared towards restoring trust in journalism.”
“As the previous ITP Philippines team sustains its efforts in establishing media-citizen councils across the nation, the 2022 team aims to enhance public awareness on the existence of such councils,” the Philippine team said.
“Through 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 also noted 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 Commission on Human Rights, among others,” the group said.
