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Press Freedom 2.0 is a five-year program run by the Press Freedom Consortium, a group of five Dutch NGOs, since 2011 in 11 countries on the theme “connecting, strengthening and pioneering voices.”
The consortium’s mission is “to support the process of development and structural poverty reduction . . . through capacity strengthening and direct support” of media organizations, journalists, peoples organizations and democracy–support organization.
Participants
The five partners are the World Press Photo, European Journalism Centre, Mensen met een Missie, European Partnership for Democracy and Free Press Unlimited, the lead organization.
Countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America are among the participating countries. In Asia the program has projects in Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Different consortium members operate in the various countries. In the Philippines, projects are run by World Press Photo and Mensen met een Missie.
Vision
A free press that contributes to the development of fair, equitable and inclusive societies where democratic values, representative and transparent governance and human rights prevail.
Mission
The Press Freedom 2.0 program aims to contribute to development and structural poverty reduction in the 13 above mentioned countries by contributing to the improvement of quality of media, the participation of civil society and increased accountability of democratic institutions.
Strategy
The Press Freedom 2.0 program will focus particularly on the role of the media in the empowerment of participatory civil society (grassroots) initiatives and strengthening of organisations and institutions that promote democratic practice.
The Philippine Program
Ateneo de Manila University through the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) is World Press Photo’s partner in the Philippines. The Philippine project aims to build ACFJ’s institutional capability as a media-support institution. This includes its capacity to train journalists to report about governance issues.
A key part of the Philippine program is the action-research project Panglantaw Mindanao: Stories from Mindanawons which is based at ACFJ. Started in January 2012, Panglantaw Mindanao (trans: Mindanao Perspectives) aims to bring together and train Mindanao photojournalists in the production of multimedia stories that represent diverse voices in Mindanao, including those of civil society groups, while upholding professional standards. To help ensure a balanced representation of these voices, Panglantaw Mindanao works with an NGO, the Mindanao Peoples Peace Movement (MPPM). Stories are being published in the mainstream media for dissemination to a national audience. The impact of the stories in political discourse will be monitored, and lessons from the experience will be culled to develop teaching modules.
Panglantaw Mindanao sought to engage professional Mindanao photojournalists who are graduates of ACFJ’s programs, in particular the photojournalism and multimedia journalism programs.
Panglantaw’s operations continue to evolve as experiences are accumulated and lessons are culled from on-the-ground developments.
