Salute to the Cebu media

(Remarks at the first Globe Cebu Media Excellence Awards at the Casino Español)

Globe Telecom has been celebrating press freedom with Cebu media because we believe in its crucial role in Philippine society. Even during the dark years before 1986, Cebu had been known to practice freedom in the face of danger. We salute your unwavering dedication to press freedom!

Last year, we introduced the media excellence awards as a fitting event to level up Cebu’s celebration of press freedom. I would like to point out that excellence includes not only good coverage and writing, but also ethical conduct as journalists go about in the pursuit of their calling.

In the pursuit of excellence, the focus of public attention is on the people at the front lines – the gutsy reporters who hound the sources and ask the difficult questions. But media excellence is only possible if there is synergy between the reporter and the editor. The editor brings out the best in the reporter – both in the treatment of the story and the discipline of the person covering the story. Globe Telecom recognizes your excellent work.

Press freedom and media excellence make the whole media industry better in uplifting our society especially in a world without borders. Our event here today, a partnership between Globe Telecom and you, involves prestigious members of today’s Philippine media read all over the globe.

In saying this, we also recognize the new media . The Internet, Facebook and Twitter has changed not only the face of Philippine media but also the way we work and our audience.

Our local audience is now Internet savvy. They are global and bombarded by millions of competing sources of information that include various media outlets here and abroad. What many refer to as “mainstream” media in Cebu is now competing with ordinary citizens and personalities who manage blogs here.

As a matter of fact, the business community and even government recognize the growing community of bloggers and their growing power in reaching out to the public. They are now part of what we can call “the merry media mix.”

Today, both ordinary folks and policy makers read and are in turn, influenced, by blogs. This is the reason we included an award for the best in the Cebu blogging community.

Giving awards for media excellence was a great idea. But making it a reality through the months entailed hard work. All entries are excellent. But sifting through all 86 entries and deciding on the 14 awardees was not a tea party. We realized that we could not have done this without the painstaking work of Cebu media stakeholders like the academe and business community.

We commend the distinguished men and women who sifted through all the entries to identify the best media works fit to be extolled as excellent.