Inquirer.net staff win journalism fellowships

Five INQUIRER.net journalists have won competitive reporting fellowships in recent months, on subjects as diverse as climate change, road safety and crisis reporting.

The fellowships will allow them to cover the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in France (December), the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Brazil (November), and the 10th Asia-Europe Foundation Journalists’ Colloquium in Luxembourg (also in November).

Media 21 Asia

The French government, hosts of the climate change talks in Paris, sponsored an Asean-wide competition among news organizations pursuing climate change-related projects. INQUIRER.net, with its ongoing comparative study of two provinces coping with more powerful typhoons, is one of nine winners from the region.

Aside from funding up to half of project costs, the French government’s Media 21 Asia project will also allow chief of reporters Kristine Angeli Sabillo and senior digital producer Sara Isabelle Pacia to cover the second week of the Paris talks (officially, the 21st Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). Inquirer.net editor in chief John Nery will cover the talks from the start.

The project team, which includes Newslab lead Matikas Santos and reporter Marc Jayson Cayabyab, is working on a special series of reports on shifting typhoon tracks and their impact on disaster risk reduction efforts of  two towns in Albay and three in Davao Oriental.

Other Media 21 Asia winners are the Bangkok Post from Thailand; Suara.com and Balebengong.net from Indonesia; Vietnam Television and VNExpress.net from Vietnam; the Cambodian Television Network  from Cambodia; and Rappler and Philippine EnviroNews from the Philippines.

The teams have already taken part in workshops on climate change reporting and the COP21 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand earlier this year. They are set to attend another set of workshops in Hanoi, Vietnam next month.

Urban transport

Nestor Corrales, INQUIRER.net’s urban transport reporter, is one of only 15 journalists from around the world selected by the International Center for Journalists to attend the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Brasilia, Brazil in November.

The conference, hosted by the government of Brazil and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, aims to help journalists produce data-driven and visual stories on road safety.

Corrales and other fellows will have the opportunity to interact with 1,500 experts attending the conference, in addition to attending sessions on data visualization, social media and interactive graphics.

Corrales covers issues affecting motorists and commuters in Metro Manila and other urban centers.

Crisis reporting

Santos, who heads INQUIRER.net’s editorial innovations team, will participate in the 10th ASEF  Journalists’ Colloquium in November, in Luxembourg.

Santos is one of 30 journalists from Asia and Europe chosen by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung to take part in discussions on “Crisis Reporting: The Role of Asian and European Media.” The proceedings will be published as an ASEF Media Handbook on Crisis Reporting.

The colloquium is held at the same time as the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. KS/JN