MANILA — Veteran journalist and ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) anchor Karmina Constantino on Thursday was named this year’s Marshall McLuhan fellow by the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
Constantino received the fellowship at the conclusion of the Jaime V. Ongpin (JVO) Journalism Seminar, where she also served as a panelist.
The JVO is an annual seminar organized by the CMFR that gathers journalists who did important work in the preceding year to discuss pressing issues in journalism and the country.
This year’s JVO panelists included Constantino, her fellow ABS-CBN journalist Mike Navallo, Facts First Host Christian Esguerra, Inquirer.net’s Cristina Eloisa Baclig, TV5’s Maeanne Los Banos, Bulatlat’s Managing Editor Ronalyn Olea, and Rappler’s Rambo Talabong.
This year, the panel discussed how journalists work in the current political climate, threats to press freedom, and at a time when disinformation has eroded public trust in media.
Constantino received the McLuhan fellowship from the Charge’d’Affaires of the Embassy of Canada Colin Townson.
Townson lauded Constantino for displaying her "unflinching commitment to speak truth to power, admirable consistency in ferreting out the most complicated issues of the day, and a stirring courage to ask the toughest questions."
As this year's fellow, Constantino will undertake a speaking tour in at least 4 Canadian cities in the second quarter of 2023, he said.
Alternative news site Bulatlat meanwhile received CMFR’s 2022 award of distinction. Olea received the award for Bulatlat.
Bulatlat received the award for “keeping true to the honored tradition of the alternative press, of giving the marginalized and disempowered a voice that can be heard.”
The CMFR award is given to journalists who “provide a model for journalism, enhancing the relevance of news and revitalizing the values of truth and freedom in its practice.”
Established in 1997, the prestigious Marshall McLuhan Fellowship is awarded yearly by the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines to a recipient "embodying outstanding qualities in the field of investigative journalism."
The fellow will travel to universities across Canada and the Philippines to deliver lectures on a chosen topic in journalism. No McLuhan fellow was named in 2021 due to pandemic restrictions in travel.
Previous McLuhan fellows include Christian Esguerra (2020), Patricia Evangelista (2019), Jeff Canoy (2018), Manny Mogato (2017), Gigi Grande (2016), Joseph Morong (2015), Cheche Lazaro (2014), Eileen Mangubat (2013), Lynda Jumilla (2012), Carol Arguillas (2011), Ed Lingao (2010), Diosa Labiste (2009), Glenda Gloria (2008), Inday Varona (2007), Gerry Lirio (2006), Yvonne Chua (2000, 2005), Tess Bacalla (2004), Luz Rimban (2003), Miriam Grace Go (2002), Vinia Datinguinoo (2001), Ellen Tordesillas (1999) and Sheila Coronel (1998).
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CMFR, Marshall McLuhan fellow, Karmina Constantino, Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar