Cebu journalist urged to join Bright Leaf Journalism Awards

CEBU, Philippines - To encourage more participants from Cebu and Central Visayas, the organizers of the Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards yesterday dropped by Cebu for a road show to announce that they have started accepting entries since May 5.

“We decided to bring the road show to Cebu because mas center siya. Mas maraming media agency and outlets dito. We wanted to invite more journalists so we said ‘why not visit Cebu’?” said Didet Danguilan of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation.

Danguilan, who heads the Public Affairs and Communication Executive Corporate Affairs of PMFTC which created the Bright Leaf, said that they noticed less number of entries from areas which they have not visited to personally urge local media practitioners to submit entries.

This year, already the eighth installment, the road show included Cebu, Bohol, Davao, Baguio, Dagupan, and Naga, among others.

“We want to put agriculture in the map,” said Danguilan, project manager of the Bright Leaf Awards.

 The Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards is open to print, TV, and radio journalists of legal age with published outputs from September 1, 2013 until August 31, 2014.

The major awards to be given are Agriculture Story of  the Year, Agriculture Photo of the Year, Tobacco Story of the Year, and Tobacco Photo of the Year.

Winners of the major awards will receive P50,000, an Asian trip, an iPad, and a trophy.

Other categories include Best Television Program or Segment, Best Radio Program or Segment with the prize of P50,000 and a certificate of recognition.

For the Best National News Story, Best Regional News Story, Best National Feature Story, Best Regional Feature News Story, the winners will get P20,000 and a certificate of recognition.

A special award, the Oriental Leaf, will be given to those who won five times, consecutively, in any of the categories and will be part of the Bright Leaf Hall of Fame.

Entries must be submitted on or before September 10 and may be in English, Filipino or any dialect but an English translation is required for entries in local dialect.

Subject of the submitted published entry must revolve around agriculture and related issues.

Last year, around 1, 500 entries were received and Danguilan said that they will be expecting more entries after they visit more places around the country.

A media practitioner can only enter one topic in a category and will only win in a single category.

Entry requirements are available at their website http://www.thebrightleafawards.com and submission of entries may either be online via [email protected] or via courier by sending hard copies of the requirements to Bright Leaf Awards 2014, Juicebox Shop Inc., L29 Joy Nostalg Centre, 17 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1600.

The secretariat may be reached through (0915) 5508301 or (0918) 4130797 for further inquiries.  (FREEMAN)