NOTED PHOTOJOURNALIST and social activist Dr. Shahidul Alam will open the Asian Center for Journalism?s (ACFJ) 10th anniversary celebration on June 7-9 at the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City.

Dr. Stefan Friedrich, head of the Asia Department of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Fr. Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, Ateneo president, will also speak during the morning festivities.

The Fifth Annual Forum of Emerging Leaders in Asian Journalism will follow the anniversary program. Some 100 journalists and scholars from at least 14 Asian countries are expected to attend this annual conference.

Aside from ACFJ alumni, journalists from leading media organizations and communication and journalism professors are expected at the forum which has for its theme, ?The Way Forward for Asian Journalism.?

The Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo was established in 2000 to promote good journalism by providing training to and educational opportunities for working journalists in Asia.

To date, it has graduated 128 journalists and 55 photojournalists, most of them as fellows and scholars. It boasts a cutting-edge curriculum and a faculty composed of accomplished journalists and educators from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

Keynote speeches will be delivered by International Herald Tribune columnist Philip Bowring and Asia News Network executive director Pana Janviroj.

Speakers include Filipino journalists Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN and Howie Severino of GMA Network, and historian-columnist Manuel Quezon III.

An exhibit of the best works of graduates of ACFJ?s photojournalism program will be inaugurated.

Among the photographers featured are award-winning photojournalists including Lyn Rillon, Rem Zamora and Raffy Lerma of the Inquirer, and Luis Liwanag, Rony Zakaria, VJ Villafranca, Christina Sevilla and Estan Cabigas.