Quezon City, 5 December 2011. ACFJ recently appointed two Filipino photojournalists to handle the Mindanao project under the World Press Photo’s Press Freedom 2.0 program in the Philippines. The project aims to set up a visual journalism network in Mindanao that will profile issues identified to the project by the participating NGOs in the local and national media, strengthen the capacity of photojournalists working on Mindanao issues, and provide professional quality photography to participating NGOs.
Bernard Julian A. Patino, photojournalist of MindaNews, a news agency of the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center, serves as project manager of the Mindanao project. He will supervise all the activities of the project including workshops and production of photo stories by participants. Patino taught at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines. He is a graduate of the Diploma in photojournalism program (2009).
Alex Baluyut, a freelance documentary photographer, acts as the project’s editor. He is an ACFJ faculty in the Diploma in photojournalism program. He worked for a number of local and international organizations covering social and human rights issues. Baluyut worked as a photographer for the Associated Press and chief photographer of the Manila Times.
The Netherlands-based World Press Photo (WPPh) is the lead organization of the Press Freedom 2.0 program. It aims to increase the representation of marginalized groups by facilitating access to media in support of their advocacy and training of media in reporting marginalized issues. It will also build the capacity of the media support organization.
The Press Freedom 2.0 program in the Philippines has two components; the first being the Mindanao project, and the other is in Aurora province. The Aurora project covers the training of professional and citizen visual journalists and undertake a baseline study to determine project area and use of visual journalism to effect positive changes in good governance.
ACFJ is WPP’s partner in implementing the two projects in the Philippines from 20110 to 2015.
