PAPI To Strengthen Community Press

By Boy Ryan Zabal

DAYANG

To strengthen the community press all over the country, the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc (PAPI) will hold an executive session on June 24 at the Makati Sports Club.
Some 100 editors, publishers and journalists from publishing companies, radio, newspapers and TV stations are expected to attend the mid-year gathering.
PAPI president Juan P. Dayang from Aklan said the annual event tackles the media implications of the recent May 14 elections, press freedom, the annual press congress and the launching of PhilNews.
The organization, founded in 1974 by the late Gen. Hanz Menzi, then publisher of the Manila Bulletin, was envisioned as a responsible and self-regulating organization for the print media.
PAPI has continuously initiated programs and projects aimed at strengthening press freedom, upgrading the competence and respectability of community journalists, and promoting countryside development.
Dayang, at the helm of PAPI for the last ten years, stressed the emerging challenges facing the countryside media is a sense of urgency for PAPI.
"The local media is a partner in the nation’s development and there is a need to balance freedom and responsibility," Dayang pointed out.
A four-day media summit held in Aklan on October 26 to 29, 2007 and the 11th National Press Congress on December 17 to 19, 2007 in Bohol were organized to help publishers and journalist define the role of the Philippine press – particularly those practicing in the countryside – in the promotion of tourism. /MP