TWENTY-EIGHT reporters from Mindanao were assembled in Puerto Prinsesa City in Palawan for a workshop when they heard the news that some of their colleagues suffered a brutal death in the hands of armed men in Maguindanao.
All shared the same concern and lament. We could have been one of those killed, said those from Southern and Central Mindanao. Others are wondering who will be left to cover the province now considered the most dangerous assignment for any reporter.
One of them is Nhor Gayak, a volunteer reporter for Unypad and a member of Bantay Ceasefire. For the workshop entitled “Mindanao Media Fellowship on Reporting on Children” sponsored by the Probe Media Foundation, Gayak submitted a radio report on the violence in Mindanao. Gayak’s report focused on the effects of violence on children.
VERA Files trustee Luz Rimban was also in that workshop as a member of the panel that reviewed the Mindanao journalists’ work, and she shares with us Gayak’s audio report: