PCIJ continues winning run at 2008 PopDev media awards

AS in previous years, the PCIJ’s stories on population, education, health, women, and the environment harvested awards in this year’s 4th Population and Development (PopDev) Media Awards held yesterday at the Mandarin Oriental Suites, Gateway Mall in Cubao, Quezon City.

Isa Lorenzo, PCIJ fellow and a former writer-researcher, won Best Feature for her story “A Feminine Challenge,” which discussed the use of sanitary napkins and its impact on the environment. Runner-up in the same category was PCIJ contributor Professor Solita Monsod’s “Tracking the Women’s Journey.” Both reports were part of the PCIJ’s i Report series on women, “All About Eba,” in August 2007.

Meanwhile, Sun Star Cebu‘s team of Cherry Ann Lim, Rene Martel, Garry Cabotaje, Allan Varquez, Gerome Dalipe, and Mayette Tabada bagged the Best Investigative Report award for their four-part series on housing and the urban poor in Cebu entitled “Squatters and the City.”

Runners-up in the same category were PCIJ’s multimedia desk head Alecks Pabico for his two-part series on the politics and the contentious issues that delayed the passage of the cheaper medicines law, and PCIJ’s deputy director Jaileen Jimeno and writer-researcher Karol Ilagan for their three-part series on how the administration is falling behind key indicators for education.

For Best News Reportage, abs-cbnNEWS.com‘s sub-editor David Chavez Dizon emerged as the winner for his news articles on birth control: “Experts belie Arroyo’s claim on impact of natural birth control;” “Low awareness of contraceptives plagues 3 RP provinces;” and “Study: Moms prefer home births in Western Samar, 2 other provinces.”

PCIJ’s Jimeno also was runner-up in the same category for her series of reports for this blog: “Low investment in education consigns millions to illiteracy;” “Arroyo urged to adopt coherent national population policy;” and “RP failing in ‘gut-level’ MDG indicators-ADB.”

Jimeno and Pabico are both past winners of the PopDev media awards. Jimeno won the Best Investigative Report award in 2005 for her two-part series on public access to modern family planning methods. Pabico, on the other hand, was adjudged Best in Online Opinion Writing in 2006 for his blog post on the living conditions of thousands of resettled families at the Southville Housing Project, the government’s relocation site for those displaced by the North Rail-South Rail Linkage Project.

Other PCIJ reports also won awards in 2006 and 2007.

Last night’s winners include Rene Bartolo of The Mindanao Times for Best Opinion or Editorial Piece; the Sandra Aguinaldo Team of GMA-7’s i-Witness for Best TV Documentary; Aurora Zialcita of DZMM’s Magandang Gabi Dok for Best Radio Program; Sonny M. Espiritu of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project for Best Single Photo; and Jes Aznar of Newsbreak magazine who received a citation for his photo essay.

Conceived in 2005, the annual PopDev Media Awards pay tribute to outstanding and responsible journalism on population and development. The awards stemmed from the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development‘s (PLCPD) recognition of the important role that mass media play in promoting awareness on the many faces of population and human development.

The awards are being conducted with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and organizations that are experts in the field of population and development, and in journalism.

Read the complete list of winners.