Online newsmagazine Newsbreak is offering six fellowships for journalists interested in doing investigative reports on health.

Under the Maggie de Pano Fund for Investigative Reporting for Health, journalists may avail of funding for reports on health. The reports may be on issues such as the misuse of public health funds, policies that affect public health, and any abuse, mismanagement or neglect by any health-oriented individuals and institutions, public and private.

Newsbreak said it will be granting the six fellowships in three cycles. The three cycles will be awarded within one year. Two fellowships will be granted for each cycle.

Deadline for entries for the first cycle is on Sept. 20, Monday, while fellowships will start on Oct. 4. Fellows will get P1,000 daily allowance for 40 days, shouldering of expenses (food, accommodation, and two-way travel for those coming from the provinces) during Newsbreak’s five-day mentoring in the early part of the fellowship, and reimbursement of expenses for out-of-town fieldwork.

Interested applicants must submit the following: an application letter; two sample investigative reports on health; one or more proposals for an investigative health story, with research plan and timetable; and a letter from the applicant’s publisher or editor granting him/her reduced workload for the fellowship’s duration. A freelancer must secure a guarantee from any legitimate media organization that it will publish his/her work.

Requirements may be sent through email. Other inquiries may be sent to the said email, or on Newsbreak’s Facebook page. 

The Public Trust Media Group owns Newsbreak. It is funded by international and local individuals and organizations.

The Probe Media Foundation Inc. (PMFI) is inviting media practitioners to submit entries to its “Mulat Pinoy Media Fellowship Program: Philippine Population in Focus”.

The fellowship, according to an official news release, seeks to maximize traditional and new media to get more Filipinos aware of how population is intertwined with poverty and development issues.

Although media practitioners across all fields and bloggers 18 years old and above are encouraged to attend the introductory forum last Saturday, non-attendees may still apply.

Selected proposals will be awarded fellowships of up to P25,000. Entries may either be in traditional (print, broadcast) or new media (blog, podcast) format.

Applicants may submit fellowship proposals whether or not they will attend the forum. Application and proposal forms can be downloaded here. The forms, together with a link or email copy of sample works (article, script or video output), may be submitted until September 6, Monday.

Questions regarding the forum and the fellowship may be sent here.

The PMFI-conducted program is supported by the Philippine Center for Population and Development (PPCD). PPCD supports programs on human development and population control.

The Asia Pacific Journalism Center (APJC) invites journalists in the region to apply for its two-week fellowship program. The fellowship, themed “Challenges to stability and development in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore”, will be held from Nov. 8 to 26.

The Australia-based APJC is a nonprofit organization that conducts programs for journalists in developing countries. It organized the fellowship program with funding from the Melbourne-based Myer Foundation and Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, mother of multimedia mogul Rupert Murdoch.

According to an APJC news release, the program seeks to improve the participants’ knowledge of the cultural, environment, socio-political and economic issues in Asia-Pacific countries, and how these affect the region’s development.

Fellows will attend a dialogue and orientation program at the Sidney Myer Asia Center and the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre in Melbourne, Australia before embarking on a two-week study tour that will cover the region. Destinations include Melbourne, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

Interested applicants must have at least eight years of journalistic experience and must be fluent in English. Application forms are available here. Applicants must send the following with the application form before Sept. 15:

1. A 500-word essay stating: the applicant’s expectations; the topic the applicant wishes to cover, and a brief description of the applicant’s news organization;
2. A letter of recommendation from the supervisor; and
3. A statement of support from the employer.

Applications, as well as questions, may be sent through email.

Journalists covering conflict situations are invited to submit entries for the first Red Cross Awards for Humanitarian Reporting.

Organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC in partnership with the Philippine National Red Cross, the award, said the news release, will recognize “stories that best illustrate the humanitarian consequence of armed conflicts.” The call for entries started on August 12, coinciding with the international humanitarian law day.

The Switzerland-based ICRC is an independent organization that protects civilians, prisoners of war, refugees and other people caught in armed conflicts, pursuant to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The 1949 Conventions, signed by 149 countries including the Philippines, included the provision to protect civilian and non-fighting entities (e.g. wounded and sick armed men) from the atrocities of war within and among countries.

In the Philippines, the ICRC has a delegation of 149 staff members, holding offices in Manila, Davao, Cotabato, Zamboanga and Tacloban. The ICRC has been supporting the PNRC in local humanitarian work.

Professional and freelance journalists working for any print, online, radio or television outfits may send published or aired material: news reports, feature articles or documentaries. Entries must highlight the consequences of armed conflict. Interested participants around the country may send their entries in any of the following schools:

Northern and Central Luzon: Central Luzon State University, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija
Metro Manila and Southern Luzon: St. Scholastica’s College Manila
Visayas: Cebu Technological University, Cebu City
Mindanao: Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City

Entries must be published or aired between Aug. 12, 2010 and March 12, 2011. Each entry must have three copies authenticated by the organization where it appeared.

The International Safety Institute (INSI), Peace and Conflict Journalism Network (Pecojon) Phillippines, Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE) and Rotary Club of Manila (RCM) are supporting the project. Representatives from the partner organizations: INSI Consultant for Asia Pacific Red Batario, Pecojon Philippines Project Head Charlie Saceda, PACE President Flordeliz Abanto and former Press Secretary and RCM Journalism Awards Chair Rod Reyes, will sit as panel of judges.

Awardees will each be given a plaque, digital recorder, books and trainings on international humanitarian law and conflict reporting. Entries may be submitted until March 12, 2011. Winners will be chosen from 32 finalists. Winners will be announced on Red Cross Day, May 8, 2011.

For more information on the Red Cross Awards, contact Allison Lopez, ICRC communication officer, at 0908.8686884, or send an e-mail.

Associated Press (AP) sportswriter Robert Millward was found dead in his hotel room in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 8.

He was in South Africa to cover the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. According to reports, he had just returned from covering the Netherlands-Uruguay semi finals in Cape Town when he died.

The emergency medical team who responded said Millward died of natural causes. He was 58.

Millward served AP since 1984, mostly covering big sporting events such as the World Cup, the Olympics and the British Open. He left AP in the late 1980s for a brief period when he started working in Birmingham, England as news editor of Caters News, the country’s oldest independent press agency.

Before he joined AP, Millward worked at the Birmingham Post as sports reporter in 1972.

Source: The Associated Press

One of Africa’s most notable journalists, Pius Njawe, died in a car accident in Virginia, United States on July 12. He was 53.

Njawé was killed while a truck hit the car he was riding. He was in the United States to attend a meeting of the Cameroon Diaspora for Change (CAMDIAC), an organization of Cameroonian expatriates who wanted to influence change in their country.

A known press freedom advocate, Njawé founded Cameroon’s first independent newspaper, Le Messager (The Messenger) at age 22 in 1979. He has then become a symbol of opposition to President Paul Biya of Cameroon, who has been in power since 1982.

Njawé was repeatedly arrested, imprisoned, fined, harassed and threatened throughout his career. This made him a case study of the risks African journalists take in serving as critics of the government.

Njawé has also earned several international press freedom awards, including the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 1991, the World Association of Newspapers Golden Pen of Freedom Award in 1993 and the International Press Institute (IPI) World Press Freedom Hero in 2000.

by Mia M. Gonzalez

A few weeks before President Joseph Estrada took his oath as Chief Executive in 1998, Palace reporters at the old press working area in Malacanang’s Kalayaan Hall exchanged mostly comedic scenarios of media coverage under the incoming administration.

One reporter joked that because of the lifestyle of Mr. Estrada–who has never kept secret his love for liquor, women, and the joys of nightlife–the Malacanang Press Corps might as well prepare for a vampire’s schedule for the next six years. Press conferences would be held around midnight til the wee hours of the morning, over rounds of hard liquor and platters of assorted pulutan (hors d’oeuvres).

Another reporter, struggling to suppress laughter, said that the song to be played whenever the Chief Executive arrived at a public engagement would be “Roll Out the Barrel.” And that there would be a “midnight” Cabinet for sure, since meetings would start at the witching hour.

(more…)

A respected American broadcast and print journalist for over 70 years, Daniel Schorr died last July 23 of a “short illness” in Washington D.C., United States. He was 93.

Schorr was among the first employees of CBS News. He was first employed at CBS as foreign correspondent in the former Soviet Union. Schorr opened the network’s Moscow bureau in 1955 and persuaded Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to be interviewed on television in his program, “Face the Nation”.

However, he went back to the United States in 1957 after being denied entry to the Soviet Union, reportedly because of his defiance of Soviet censors.

Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his Watergate scandal coverage. According to reports, President Richard Nixon was so angry that he ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe Schorr.

He left CBS in 1976. He then became a journalism professor in the University of California, Berkeley, and wrote columns for a local newspaper, The Des Moines Register and Tribune. After two years, the paper did not renew his contract.

In 1985, however, he joined National Public Radio (NPR) as radio commentator.

Prior to his work in CBS, he had also worked for The Jewish Daily Bulletin, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Netherlands East Indies’ news agency, Aneta.

Source: The New York Times

CHEERS TO the GMA News Research for an in-depth report tracking the various business interests of President Benigno Aquino III.

The July 14 report showed that much of Aquino’s wealth was inherited and that his business interests mostly revolve around companies owned by the Cojuangcos, his relatives. (“PNoy’s business interests are all in the family”)