The weekly Baguio Chronicle bags the Best in Reporting on Migration Issues for the 2022 PPI Civic Journalism Community Press Awards. Franklin Cimatu, contributing editor, receives the trophy from ILO National Project Coordinator Hussein Macarambon and AIJC Senior Director Ann Lourdes Lopez.
ILO National Project Coordinator Hussein Macarambon challenges member-publications of the Philippine Press Institute to fill in the gap of balanced and contextualized stories on Filipino migrant workers and their families.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), continues to support the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) Civic Journalism Community Press Awards.
The yearly awards program honors community newspapers for editorial excellence and for their role as catalysts of community development.
Since 2020, ILO has supported the awarding of Best in Reporting on Migration Issues to daily and weekly community newspapers of PPI.
The Baguio Chronicle, a weekly based in Baguio City, received the best in migration reporting award at ceremonies held on April 25, 2023 at Citadines Bay City Manila in Pasay City.
The paper was cited for “stories originally produced that captured community-situated realities of its region’s overseas Filipino workers” and for its dedicated OFW section that “helped raise awareness on migration issues.”
For their commendable coverage of overseas Filipinos, two community newspapers won the “Best in Reporting on Migration Issues” during the awarding ceremonies of the Philippine Press Institute 2021 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards, held on October 24 in Manila.
Mindanao Times won under the daily category, while Baguio Chronicle won under the weekly category.
This is the second year that the International Labour Organization (ILO) supported the best in migration reporting awards, in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) and the Philippine Press Institute (PPI).
ILO National Project Coordinator Hussein Macarambon speaks on the importance of tapping the community press to cover migration issues.
According to Hussein Macarambon, ILO National Project Coordinator, “News media in the Philippines, across all platforms (print, broadcast, online), remain the most accessible and credible information source on labour migration issues. While social media platforms are becoming more pervasive, their reliability remains questionable because their content does not usually pass through a verification process. It is thus a dilemma for media advocates how to bridge the gap between saturation of disinformation on social media and the limited coverage of traditional media outlets. Tapping the community press, specifically community newspapers, is one way of filling this gap. Local newspapers, being situated in the communities that they serve, have direct contact with and feel the pulse of their readers.”
Mindanao Times editor in chief Amalia Cabusao receives the Best in Reporting on Migration Issue trophy, daily newspaper category.
Mindanao Times, published in Davao City, was cited for its regular coverage of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and government services and programs for OFW repatriation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also featured the lives of overseas Filipinos beyond their work, showing how Filipinos are integrating into the cultures of their countries of destination and how they maintain their identity and culture while abroad.
Baguio Chronicle officers pose with their trophy for the Best in Reporting on Migration Issues, weekly newspaper category.
Baguio Chronicle, based in Baguio City, was commended for its stories that focused on the needs of overseas Filipinos and on their achievements, giving a human face to the Filipino diaspora. Also notable was the newspaper’s coverage of internal migration in the Cordillera region and in Baguio City, as local governments tried to balance the need to protect their residents from COVID-19 and the need for businesses to maintain operations and for workers to earn a livelihood.
Last year, winners were the Daily Guardian, Iloilo City, for the dailies and Luzonwide News Correspondent, Ilagan, Isabela, for the weeklies.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES –Journalists from community newspapers of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) gathered online recently to discuss issues on international migration and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
The International Labor Organization (ILO), Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), and PPI organized the Webinar on Labor Migration for PPI Member-Publications on September 23, 2022.
Hussein Macarambon, National Project Coordinator of the Ship to Shore Rights Southeast Asia, ILO Country Office for the Philippines, discussed international labor migration and forced labor, emphasizing that forced labor affects everyone, including businesses and the government.
He explained the various United Nations and ILO conventions and treaties on labor and migration and their link to national labor standards. He pointed out that even if there are certain conventions on forced labor, new forms have emerged. Thus, governments must take new measures to tackle forced labor in all its forms by following the protocol on the three-tiered mechanism of protection, prevention, and compensation.
“If we want to make a significant change in the lives of the 25 million men, women, and children in forced labor, we need to take concrete and immediate action. Let’s not just be angry at slavery, let’s make change happen.”
Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (as quoted by Hussein Macarambon)
Discussing the Philippine labor migration management system, Toby Nebrida, Spokesperson and Head of the Strategic Communications Office of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), explained the department’s way forward to fulfill its mandate to protect the interest and welfare of OFWs.
He pointed out that at least 12 countries having an interest in Filipino migrant workers reached out to the department. However, problems of abuse, exploitation, inhumane treatment, and unfair work conditions remain. Over 1,000 OFWs were recently repatriated because of these problems.
According to Nebrida, the implementation of a fully automated recruitment of the deployment process, with a verification/ accreditation online platform, and better cultural awareness orientation and training for OFWs and employers are two of the deployment strategies of the department.
He explained that bilateral arrangements of DMW with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia act as a blueprint for future agreements with other countries and aim to focus on migration governance, rules and rights-based, fair and ethical recruitment, shared responsibility, and respect for the dignity of labor.
“Whenever we write about an OFW’s journey, it is always a sad story. Hopefully, with the new directions that we are making at the DMW, we will be able to transform the stories that you write as well into stories of inspiration, hope, and success.”
Toby Nebrida, Spokesperson and Head, Strategic Communications Office, Department of Migrant Workers
Dr. Jeremaiah Opiniano, President of the OFW Journalism Consortium and Journalism professor at the University of Santo Tomas, explained why journalists should look at international migration. With the increase in scale and diversity of international migrants, at least 281 million people live and 100 million or more work outside their country of birth. He underlined that remittances from migrants are the largest international flow of money into developing countries.
Dr. Opiniano stressed the importance of capturing the human dramas and reporting the two sides of the story, both from the country of origin and the country of destination.
He cited the following sources of stories: neighbors and relatives, regional and provincial government offices dealing with migration and labor, OFW family networks, local OFW desks of the Social Welfare and Development Office or the Public Employment Service Office, local chief executives and legislative councils, and hometown associations abroad.
He also suggested mentoring between editors and reporters on migration-aligned beats and a more active community press for their migrant “townmates.”
Ann Lourdes Lopez, AIJC Senior Director, discussed the criteria for the selection of two local newspapers for the “Best in Reporting on Migration Issues” category in the PPI Civic Journalism Community Press Awards. She explained that the winners, one from the dailies and another from the weeklies, should exhibit excellence in coverage and reporting of local migration issues and of migrants and their families from the community and should demonstrate regularity, frequency, and variety in local migration coverage and reporting.
Regarding the migration awards category, PPI Executive Director Ariel Sebellino said, “Newspaper stories (on labor migration issues) from outside the capital should be improved…by putting human faces into the narratives, because that’s what civic journalism is all about. This is the framework of the awards program that PPI has had over the years, which makes it different from other media organizations. Precisely why we are putting a premium on this additional category amongst other categories.”
This is the second year that ILO is supporting PPI in awarding winners for “Best in Reporting on Migration Issues.”
Kristian Pura, AIJC Managing Director, said that he hoped that these awards would increase the coverage by community newspapers of the stories and voices of Filipino migrant workers, who would be empowered to be active participants in the life of their communities and the life of the nation.
“More of this kind” and “make it longer” were among the comments of the participants. One journalist said, “We need the information for better understanding for our stories and reporting.” The webinar on labor migration is the second activity ILO has supported for PPI member-publications.
Tags: migrant workers, community press, labor migration, governance, modern slavery
Take advantage of the comparative advantage of the online platform during this pandemic, advised ILO Media and Migration Consultant Charles Autheman as he wrapped up the last of his online one-on-one coaching sessions on how to teach the elective course, Reporting on Labor Migration, on July 30, 2021.
Meeting with Ma. Rosario Victoria de Guzman, Journalism Division Chair of the West Visayas State University in Iloilo City, Autheman encouraged her to invite to the online classroom as resource person a seafaring relative of a student or a Filipino journalist based abroad who reports on migrant workers.
The individualized coaching sessions, which started in June, were conducted by Autheman with nine journalism teachers from eight higher education institutions (HEIs), for a total of 17 sessions that each lasted from 30 minutes to one hour.
These activities with journalism teachers are part of the International Labour Organization (ILO)-Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) Fair Recruitment Initiative to introduce the elective course on labor migration reporting in the journalism curriculum of HEIs.
The teachers will use the course syllabus that was developed as part of the ILO-AIJC project. The project is led by ILO National Project Coordinator Hussein Macarambon, with AIJC Senior Director Ann Lourdes Lopez as Project Manager.
Clockwise: Ma. Rosario Victoria de Guzman, Journalism Division Chair of the West Visayas State University, AIJC Senior Director Ann Lourdes Lopez, AIJC Program Officer Loregene Macapugay, ILO Consultant Charles Autheman