MEDCo to conduct communicators’ forum this week

DAVAO CITY — To step up efforts in communicating peace and development in Mindanao, as well as strengthen linkages with the national media, a communicators’ forum will be held this week.

The forum organized by the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo), through its Mindanao Information Network for Development and Peace or MINDPeace, also seeks to increase media placement of Mindanao stories that veer away from the usual staple of war and conflict.

“What we need is a balanced reporting of Mindanao. While it can’t be helped that negative stories topbill the newspaper headlines, we want to have a balanced picture that also portrays a progressive Mindanao that continues to rise amidst its challenges,” said Usec. Virgilio Leyretana, MEDCo Chairman.

Leyretana added that communicating development stories in the national media agenda has increasingly become challenging given the shrinking media space and the propensity of the national media to favor stories about war and conflict in Mindanao.

To be held on 26-27 November 2009 at the Rancho Palos Verdes, the forum is expected to bring in communication and media experts such as Carlos Conde (The New York Times), Manny Mogato (Thomson-Reuters), Lala Rimando (ABS-CBN/Newsbreak), Marcy Ballesteros [the Asian Institute for Journalism and Communication (AIJC)] and Theresa Reyes-Castillo, a Public Relations expert recognized by Mindanao peace and development communicators.

Supported by the Action for Conflict Transformation (ACT) for Peace Programme, the forum is also seen as a knowledge-sharing venue expected to gather communication practitioners of the various development programs in Mindanao and partner organizations working for Mindanao peace and development, as well as representatives of alternative media, such as bloggers and filmmakers in Mindanao.

The forum also aims to contribute to the ongoing formulation of the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan, with emphasis on the role of media and communication, to setting the direction for Mindanao in the next decade.

The discussions will then be facilitated by Fr. Albert Alejo, who will also share communication challenges and imperatives that were identified from the recently conducted Konsult Mindanaw study.

“We recognize that communication plays a vital role in peace and development. After all, all the well-planned, hard-earned gains that can promote trade, tourism and investment in Mindanao can easily be overshadowed by actual, though usually isolated, or exaggerated stories of conflict,”
said Leyretana. MEDCo