SUN.STAR Davao continued its winning streak as it garnered three awards in the Philippine Press Institute's 2007 Community Press Awards and a special award for civic journalism from The Coca Cola Export Corporation during the awards night at the Diamond Hotel in Manila last May 29.
It was a night for Sun.Star as its sister publication the Sun.Star Daily in Cebu, which is already a Hall of Famer of the Community Press Awards, also got the special award for civic journalism for the Visayas publications. The special awardee for Luzon is Mabuhay, a weekly community newspaper in Pangasinan.
At the Community Press Awards, Sun.Star Davao got three of the five major awards in the daily category -- best in editorial page, science and environmental reporting, and photojournalism.
Cebu Daily News got the two other major awards -- best in business reporting and best edited daily.
Sun.Star Davao also walloped Cebu Daily News last year after garnering four of the five major awards.
Sun.Star Davao editor-in-chief Stella Estremera, as well as Cebu Daily News publisher Eileen Mangubat and editor-in-chief Connie Fernandez--who received their paper's awards, dedicated the PPI distinctions to their newsroom colleagues.
Elevated to the PPI Hall of Fame for garnering the most awards from 1997 to 1999, Sun.Star Cebu and The Freeman were not in the running for the 2007 Annual Community Press Awards.
The Sun.Star Cebu booth also won plums in the Civic Journalism Exhibits.
Selected by the judges and polled as the people's choice, the Sun.Star Cebu booth featured highlights of the paper's conduct of its multi-part special reports.
In the weekly category, the 2007 Annual Community Press Awards winners are: Mabuhay for best edited community paper, Metro Post (Dumaguete) for best editorial page, Balikas (Batangas) for best in science and environmental reporting, Baguio Midland Courier for best in business and economics reporting, and Pampanga News for best in photojournalism.
This year's national board of judges was chaired by Augusto Villanueva, PPI trustee and editor-in-chief of The Journal Group of Publications. Members were Manolo L. Quezon III of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dr. Donna Paz T. Reyes of the Environmental Studies Institute and Miriam College, Mel Velarde of Next Mobile Inc. and The Velarde Group Inc., and Angelina Enriquez-Borican of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
The regional screening committees involved the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication for Luzon, University of the Philippines Los Baños for Visayas, and Colegio de San Juan de Letran for Mindanao.
For the first time since 1997, the annual confab was open to non-PPI members: schools, government, non-government organizations, and other civil society groups.
Sun.Star too showed its edge in civic journalism as its editors were among those tapped to share their best practices in civic journalism. Sun.Star Cebu's managing editor Cherry Ann Lim shared the processes involved in preparing the special reports, while Sun.Star Davao's Estremera discussed how the big stories are actually among the small people, as she shared the experience of Sun.Star Davao in bringing major community concerns through civic journalism reports like whole communities not having birth certificates right in the middle of downtown Davao, and equally huge communities never having a sanitary toilet.
Estremera was also tapped as the resource speaker for the Students' Forum where she tackled "The campus as venue for civic journalism," sharing the stage with University of the Philippines-Diliman communications department chair Rachel Khan who discussed "The code of ethical and professional conduct of journalists," Dela Salle University-Manila Department of Communication senior professorial lecturer Tess Bacalla who lectured on "Writing for Children and on Disasters," and Philippine Press Council chair Gary Mariano who discussed "The right to reply."
It was after this forum when the Scholastic Press Alliance was launched, an alliance initiated by the PPI for school publications and campus writers.
