MINDANEWS, a Mindanao-based news organization, is this year’s recipient of a Peace Award given annually by the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
In ceremonies held at ADZU Friday, the Jesuit university cited Mindanews for their “significant contributions in providing accurate, timely and comprehensive news and information on Mindanao, its people, its culture, and its advocacies in the pursuit of being an alternative medium of media coverage especially in peace and development concerns, thus making a marked difference in Journalism and Public Information in the country.”
Mindanews is a cooperative composed of Mindanao-based journalists who believe it’s their “responsibility to ensure a mixed balance of reports (about Mindanao) beyond the usual fare published in national newspapers or aired on radio and TV.”
The citation traced the beginnings of Mindanews in 2000 when “a small group of dedicated professional journalists, led by Carol Arguillas, asked themselves how they could go beyond simply feeding news of conflict to war-biased Manila-based national dailies” while some parts of the region were still reeling from the all-out war policy of President Estrada against the Muslim rebels.
The citation mentioned about the challenges that Mindanews had and continues to face, the most poignant of which was the death of one of its members, photo editor Gene Boyd Rodriguez Lumawag who was s gunned down in Jolo, Sulu, on November 12, 2004 while on an official mission.
Mindanews, a partner of VERA Files, has a served as secretariat for the Mindanao Media Summit, a coalition of print and broadcast media practitioners conscious of their role in pushing for Mindanao peace and development.
The group also undertakes journalism training for students, non-government organizations and cooperatives, and skills improvement for practicing journalists.
Calling the story of Mindanews as a “modern peace epic, the citation said, “It has become a touching story of the (same) search for peace with justice, integrity and sustainability.”
The Ateneo Peace Award was established in 1998 and is given to persons, groups or organizations, government or non-governemnt “ who had made significant contributions to the peace process and the culture of peace. “ Previous Peace awardees include Lt. General Mohammad Benjamin D. Dolorfino and and Lt. General Raymundo B. Ferrer, both from the AFP in 2009, Nagdilaab Foundation Incorporated in 2008, Balay Mindanao Foundation, Inc in 2007 and Most Reverend Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, DD in 2006.
The Peace Award is one of the Special Awards given by ADZU to persons or groups who give hope to the hopeless. Other awardees were the Archdiocese of Zamboanga for the Abp Luis del Rosario SJ DD award; Assisi Development Foundation for the Pro Deo et Patria award; and film director Sheron Dayoc, an alumnus of ADZU, for using his expertise in films like “Halaw” that “weaves into the complex human trafficking issues of our time and makes a movie worth our attention and reflection.”