STAR in Rotary Hall of Fame

MANILA, Philippines - For winning the Newspaper of the Year award a historic three times, The Philippine STAR was elevated to the Hall of Fame of the Rotary Club of Manila’s coveted Journalism Awards.

Noted for being fair and unbiased in its reporting of the news, The Philippine STAR won the plum for the first time in 2005, and was named back-to-back winner in 2012 and 2013.

STAR president and CEO Miguel Belmonte received the Hall of Fame award during ceremonies held yesterday at the New World Hotel.

“It is truly a great honor for The Philippine STAR to be the first and only newspaper to win the Hall of Fame Award from the Rotary Club of Manila. It is a credit to the men and women of the company who work with such passion, loyalty and dedication to ensure that truth prevails,” Belmonte said.

Apart from The Philippine STAR, also honored in the print category were Philippine Daily Inquirer as Newspaper of the Year; and STAR sister publications Freeman Cebu as Regional Newspaper of the Year and BusinessWorld as Business Newspaper of the Year, making it a near-sweep for The STAR Group of publications.

Jojo Robles, columnist of Manila Standard Today, was adjudged Opinion Writer of the Year, while STAR columnist and former senator Ernesto Maceda received a special award.

Established in 1996, the Rotary Club of Manila honors the most outstanding journalists in print, television and radio. This year, the Awards recognized online work as well, as it feted Maria Ressa, president of Rappler.com, as Journalist of the Year.

In the broadcast category, ABS-CBN came home with the most number of awards as its radio and television news anchors swept the individual categories, namely Atom Araullo as Male Journalist of the Year for Television, Bernadette Sembrano as Female Broadcast Journalist of the Year for Television, Anthony Taberna as Male Broadcast Journalist of the Year for Radio (dzMM) and Nina Corpuz as Female Broadcast Journalist of the Year for Radio (dzMM).

Meanwhile, GMA Network was cited as Television Station of the Year while radio station dwIZ was named Radio Station of the Year.

In the ensuing open forum that followed the awards, fireworks erupted as the issue of media killings was raised. Broadcaster Taberna rued that while media killings was a legitimate issue, the bigger dilemma was irresponsible media, as in the case of reports tagging innocent mediamen in payoffs. This kind of irresponsible reporting, he lamented, needlessly diminished the credibility of reputable media.

For her part, Ressa underscored the role of technology in shaping the world. “It is changing every single thing we do, the way we live, feel,” she said.

The journalists also banded together in taking a stand against what they felt was the country’s culture of impunity.

The Rotary Club of Manila is the oldest and most prestigious in Asia, and serves to recognize the important role of media in the country in shaping opinion, influencing government policy and in exposing wrongdoing among public servants.