THE Rotary Club of Manila yesterday awarded VERA Files a special citation for outstanding reporting under the New Media category.
“For its exhaustive investigative reports on the Assets and Liabilities of government officials, particularly of the President and the First Gentleman, highlighting the people’s right to information,” the citation read.
This is the first time that the 91-year-old organization has included New media in its annual journalism awards.
RCM also gave two other special citations: a book award for Maritess Vitug’s “Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court” and Mindanao Gold Daily for the regional newspaper award.
It’s the second award received by VERA Files, which started in March 2008. The first was the 2009 Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism (JVOAEJ) for its investigative report “Quedancor swine program another fertilizer scam” written by Yvonne Chua and Luz Rimban, and contributor Diosa Labiste, who won top prize (Award of Distinction) and a Marshall McLuhan fellowship.
Winners for the 2010 RCM Institutional Journalism awards:
- Philippine Daily Inquirer, newspaper of the year
- DZMM Radyo Patrol 630, radio station of the year
- ANC Network (ABS-CBN), television/news station of the year
- Ricky Carandang of ABS-CBN, broadcast journalist of the year.
RCM did not give any award to outstanding columnist this year.
The 2010 RCM Journalism award was chaired by former Press Secretary Rodolfo T. Reyes with Frank Evaristo as vice chair.
The awarding ceremonies led bby RCM President Benjamin S. Santos and Preisdent-elect Gert A. Gust was held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati.