The interviews by the teams from Paref Rosehill School and Quezon National High School (QNHS) received the editors’ nod as the Inquirer’s official entries to the global My Dream Interview (MDI) competition sponsored by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-Ifra), Fundación Acindar and The Interview People.
Composed of students Margarita Francesca G. Camacho, Therese Marie G. Angangco, Marie Louise B. Boncan and Karen A. Racelis, with teacher Glecy G. Gamboa as coach, the Paref team interviewed science educator Dr. Josette Biyo.
The QNHS team, consisting of students Lea Z. Nuera, Angela Christine M. de Mesa, Vivien Joy P. Berania and Danica A. Brutas, with teacher Ramonito Elumbaring as coach, interviewed online social media Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.
Global winners
WAN-Ifra announced just this week that two student teams from Argentina had won the MDI Prize.
One interview was with Estela de Carlotto, mother of a young woman assassinated during Argentina’s dictatorship and head of The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
The other was with Susana Trimarco, whose Foundation of Maria of the Angels has rescued more than 900 Argentine women from sexual slavery.
The award ceremonies will open WAN-Ifra’s World Publishing Expo and Conferences on Oct. 29-31 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The winning interviews were conducted by seventh graders (12- to 13-year-olds) from two schools in Santa Fe province in Argentina. They were entered into the global contest by the newspaper La Nación.
More than 2,000 students worldwide participated, working with newspapers in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. WAN-Ifra provided a teacher’s guide to help students learn how to conduct productive interviews.
The Inquirer launched the local contest for students 11 to 15 years old as a summer project, with the support of Nokia and Maynilad. It conducted free workshops to give students skills in interviewing, researching, fact-checking and formulating questions.
Youth project
“We wanted to do two things with this project,” said Aralynn McMane, executive director of Young Readership Development at WAN-Ifra. “Most important was to offer a fun way to introduce youth to the practice of professional journalism, as only newspapers can provide. But it was also a way to encourage newspapers to work closely with, and listen to, young people. From the reactions of teachers, students and newspaper people worldwide, we know that both missions were accomplished.”
The festival, which was supported by Fundación Acindar, featured an international jury of prominent journalists from Ireland, South Africa, France and Germany.
Uli Karg, editorial director for The Interview People, said he was very impressed with the topics the kids chose. “They mainly focused on strong, impressive individuals who dedicated their lives to make this world a better place—hardly any pop stars and sportsmen who are widely regarded as idols of youth. Also, they wanted to learn from their interviewees, which is a very important approach for journalists in general. Only if journalists themselves constantly learn will they have the chance to continue to reach their readers.”
Jury commendations went to teams working with Diario de Navarra of Spain and Diario do Nordeste of Brazil. A special mention went to the Fundación para el Periodismo of Bolivia, which persuaded the country’s 12 leading newspapers to participate and helped a group of children get an interview with the country’s president.
The Paref and QNHS interviews were selected from the five interviews by the finalist teams that qualified on the basis of the interview questions they submitted to the Inquirer.
The other teams were from Colegio de San Agustin, which interviewed Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Fort Bonifacio High School, which talked to prima ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde; and Malayan High School of Science, which interviewed businessman Manny V. Pangilinan.
All five interviews have been published in this section.
WAN-Ifra, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organization of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.
Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.