MANILA, May 29 – Twelve journalists from five Asian countries have been awarded fellowships by the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ) to pursue a master?s degree in journalism beginning June 2006.
Among the 12 are two journalists from Malaysia, one each from India, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar, and six from the Philippines. Seven of the recipients are women, namely: Anisha Bhaduri, 28, chief sub-editor, The Statesman (India); Ditas Lopez, business reporter, Dow Jones Newswires, Manila; Nannette Guadalquiver, business editor, The Visayan Daily Star (Philippines); Juliet Javellana, senior reporter, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Concepcion Cruz, senior producer, The Probe Team, ABS-CBN (Philippines); Parimalawani Muthiah, reporter, The Star (Malaysia); and Marie Antonette Pacheco, 27, senior news reporter, Breakfast, Studio 23 (Philippines).
The other grantees are: Myo Zaw, senior editor, Beauty Magazine (Myanmar); Ngee Chong Wong, Mandarin producer, NTV7 Siasat (Malaysia); Erelson Cabatbat, desk officer, ABC-5 (Philippines) Cedelf Tupas, acting sports editor, The Visayan Daily Star (Philippines); and Bruce Avasadanond, news anchor and editor, Radio Thailand News.
With the 12 new fellows, the number of ACFJ graduate fellows will total 37 in the coming school year which begins in June.
Last year’s batch of 16 journalists – fellows from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were feted early this month in a program which also marked the announcement of a change in the name of the center to Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University, or ACFJ.
The fellowship program and the master’s in journalism are two key projects of ACFJ. Every year ACFJ awards graduate fellowships to working journalists with outstanding credentials and leadership potentials.
The master’s program is a state-of-the-art program in which most courses are conducted using interactive online learning methods, making it accessible to working journalists across Asia. So far 16 journalists from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China and the Philippines have completed the program.
In addition to the master’s program, ACFJ also offers diploma courses and short courses on specialized topics. It is set to launch a diploma course in photojournalism this year.
