Student journalists from different high schools and colleges in the province convened with media personnel to tackle issues in press freedom and democracy in Lavoxa’s Papercut, held at the CBEAM Function Hall Wednesday, May 2.
With the theme Media on the Edge: The Campus Press in Bridging Democracy and Dissent, the seminar featured lectures and forums with key players in the field of journalism, social media, and literary arts.
Alma Anonas-Carpio, associate editor of Philippines Graphic, headed the talks in the first plenary session wherein she stressed the importance of a free press and identified the existing threats to press freedom as well as her personal experiences in the field.
The plenary session was followed with two batches of parallel sessions which featured Allan Popa (Poetry in Times of Turmoil), Bryan Ezra Gonzales (The Role of Campus Journalists in Nation Building), Raffy Lerma (Covering the Drug War), Kristine Sabillo (The Shift to Online Journalism), Red Tani (The Politics of Social Media) and Atty. Jun Dio (Rights of a Journalist).
Meanwhile, the parallel sessions were followed with another plenary session by Luis Liwanag, a veteran photo and video journalist.
Liwanag talked about documentary journalism and images as a narrative, showing his documentary “Duterte’s Hell”, which won first prize in the 2018 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling, Short Form contest.
Papercut is a substitute activity for this year’s Gawad Mamamahayag, the latter being an annual event hosted by the Lavoxa Group of Publications to recognize exemplary student publications and journalists in the province.
Papercut was held instead because of the pressing need in improving the literacy of campus journalists in the role that they play in current issues affecting the media.
