Mindanao veteran journalist wins international peace prize

Veteran journalist Carolyn Arguillas. Photo lifted from Facebook post of Carolyn Arguillas

MANILA, Philippines — Carolyn Arguillas — a veteran journalist and journalism professor who served as MindaNews’ editor-in-chief until June 1 — has won the prestigious 2023 Outstanding Peace Journalism Award from the Luxembourg Peace Prize.

Now MindaNews’ special reports editor and head of its Publications, Archives, and Library, Arguillas was awarded the peace prize for her contribution “towards a better reporting and understanding of Mindanao.”

“With her unwavering commitment to journalism ethics and her contributions to constructive and inclusive media coverage, Carolyn has become an influential figure in the pursuit of peace in the Philippines,” wrote the Schengen Peace Foundation, the awarding body of the Luxembourg Peace Prize.

Arguillas was named a Marshall McLuhan Fellow in 2011, chairs the Davao City-based Mindanao News and Information Cooperative, and won the Titus Brandsma award for peace journalism in 2002.

The Schengen Foundation also recognized MindaNews’ contributions for its “constructive coverage of peace efforts” under Arguillas, honoring its “significant role in achieving milestones in the country’s peace processes, including the signing of a peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro people in the southern part of the country and the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.”

Under Arguillas’ leadership, MindaNews earned the Award for Distinction from the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in 2015; the “Favorite Online News Portal” award in the first Blue Knight Media Awards by Ateneo de Davao University; the Ateneo Peace Award from Ateneo de Zamboanga University in 2010; and the Mindanao Peace Champion award from the ACT for Peace Programme of the Government of the Philippines-United Nations Development Programme-Philippines.

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