SG Tuazon receives Holy Angel University Laus Deo Semper Award

AMIC Secretary General Ramon R. Tuazon was conferred the Laus Deo Semper Award for Outstanding Community Service by the Holy Angel University (HAU) during its Founders Day Awards. The conferment was held on March 8, 2023 at the University Theater.

Named after the University motto, “Praise be to God Always,” the Award is bestowed to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to community service and exemplified societal responsibility.

The Award acknowledged Mr. Tuazon’s over 35 years’ experience in communication and media works not only in the Philippines but in many other Asian countries such as Myanmar, Bhutan, Indonesia, and Lao PDR. His contributions were in the areas of freedom of expression, access to information, safety of journalists and media workers, and communication for development.

SG Tuazon is immediate past president of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC). He is the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Technical Committee for Communication and a member of the CHED Technical Working Group for Graduate Education. He teaches at the HAU Graduate School.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Tuazon reminded the audience that awards or recognitions is something we should not expect; but once given, “we can only regard it as a motivation to do more and to inspire others to replicate and hopefully even exceed our modest contributions to unburden others. Recognition should not be interpreted as how good you are but as a higher standard to measure your self-worth. “

The five other awardees are John C. De Leon for Outstanding Achievement by an Alumnus, Francisco G. Adviento for Outstanding Service to the University, Rhodora Angela F. Ferrer for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Education by a Lay Person, Eusebio Z. Dizon for Outstanding Contribution to Kapampagan Research and Scholarship, and Ramon C. David for Outstanding Achievement in Kapampangan Culture and the Arts.

HAU Communication students spearhead anti-fake news campaign

By Edgar Delalamon and Marvin Viado

Communication students of Holy Angel University, Philippines, are at the forefront in a campaign to fight disinformation. The initiative covers seven provinces in Central Luzon Region of the Philippines. 

They organized a series of workshops and conferences in cooperation with their counterparts coming from key Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in those provinces, in partnership with Non- Government Organizations.

To complement the anti-disinformation campaign, they also conducted research projects with international collaboration among HEIs in Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. The other significant output of the cooperation was the creation of an anti-“fake news” website which was maintained by the Communication students.

Last February 3, the Communication students launched the I AM REAL: Looking Beyond the Shadows Of Disinformation which was graced by famous anti-“fake news” advocates Adrian Puse, Ted Lerner and John Nery.

Holy Angel University is an institutional member of AMIC. 

UNESCO calls to regulate digital platforms amid online disinformation and hate

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-call-regulate-digital-platforms-face-online-disinformation-and-hate

UNESCO’s Internet For Trust Conference held on February 21 to 23 brought together 4,300 participants to discuss regulatory solutions to the ongoing crisis of online information – the first ever such global conference.

Speakers from UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay to the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa underlined the urgent need for common global guidelines to improve the reliability of information while protecting human rights. 

The Internet For Trust Conference served as a high point in a global dialogue launched by UNESCO to develop first global guidelines for the regulation of social media to improve the reliability of information and promote human rights online.

The Organization involved all stakeholders: governments, independent regulators, digital companies, academia and civil society. The guidelines will be launched by UNESCO in September 2023.

Maria Ressa, Nobel Laureate journalist, said: “Lies spread faster than facts. For some reason, facts are really boring. Lies – especially when laced with fear, with anger, with hate, with tribalism (us against them)—they spread like throwing a lit match into kindling.”

She cautioned that if we continue to tolerate social media algorithms which reward lies, future generations would inherit a world in which truth has been dangerously devalued. “Without facts, you can’t have truth, without truth, you can’t have trust, and we have no shared reality”.

In his message to the Conference, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recalled the violent attacks on democratic institutions in Brazil on January 8.

President da Silva said what happened that day was the culmination of a campaign, initiated much earlier, and that used lies and disinformation as ammunition. To a large extent, this campaign was nurtured, organized, and disseminated through digital platforms and messaging apps. This is the same method used to generate acts of violence elsewhere in the world. It must stop.

Regulation coordinated and anchored in human rights 

The Director-General of UNESCO pointed out the proliferation of regulatory initiatives — at least 55 countries are working on these. But she advocated a coherent, global approach, based on human rights.

 “If these regulatory initiatives are developed in isolation, with each country working in their own corner, they are doomed to fail. Information disruption is by definition a global problem, so our reflections must take place at the global scale,” she said.

The Director-General urged all countries to join UNESCO’s efforts to transform the internet into a tool which is truly at the service of the public and that helps assure the right to freedom of expression, a right which includes the right to seek and receive information. 

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, said: “Discussions, such as the ones we are having now in Paris, are immensely important.

“It’s important to figure out a common set of guidelines on how to regulate this digital space. Technology cannot be misused to suppress people, to surveil or harass, or to shut down the internet.”

AMIC SG Ramon R. Tuazon attended the conference and presented a paper in one of the side events, entitled, “The Role of the Multi Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP) in Translating The Outcomes of the Global Multistakeholder Discussion, Into Practical Work and Results on The Ground.” This was held on 21 February 2023.

AMIC Explores Africa in 29th Annual Conference

THE Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) will be engaged in another pioneering event with the upcoming 29^th AMIC Annual Conference scheduled on September 28-30, 2023.

The annual event’s theme is Talk ASAP: Africa-Asia Pacific Dialogue on Communication Issues.

The pioneering initiative for dialogue between the two continents is the 1955 Asian-African Conference popularly known as the Bandung Conference which was described as “the first significant gathering of independent and soon-to-be independent nations in Asia and Africa.”

Currently, there is no exclusive venue for dialogue and exchange of lessons and experiences between Asia and Africa, particularly in the communication and media sectors.

According to AMIC Secretary-General Ramon R. Tuazon, the conference will serve as a platform for renewed South-South knowledge-sharing and peer-learning mechanism, i.e., to share experiences, perspectives, lessons, and technologies and to provide opportunities for interregional, and intercontinental cooperation.

The Conference is envisioned to be a venue for communication and media scholars  to share and exchange lessons and experiences, especially best practices, in addressing common communication media issues and concerns. It also aims to promote Afro-Asian communication scholarship through collaborative academic initiatives, provide a venue for networking among Asian and African communication professionals and institutions for collaborative programs/projects in research, publications, forums, and faculty/student exchanges, and explore the feasibility of adopting a mechanism for inter-continental consultation toward consensus-building for current and emerging  global communication issues.

The 29th annual conference will be co-hosted by Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD) in Bandung, Indonesia, and Far Eastern University (FEU) in Manila.

UNPAD is part of AMIC history. AMIC emerged from a 1971 travelling seminar that brought 13 Asian communication and journalism educators to 13 cities in Asia in 25 days. The third stop in the 25-day tour was the Facultas Publizistik of Padjajaran University. The study programs of UNPAD’s Faculty of Communication Sciences has been accredited ‘A’, and in 2013-2014, its Master of Communication Science program became the only one with ‘A’ accreditation in Indonesia.

FEU is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1928. It has seven institutes that offer 24 undergraduate programs, 17 graduate programs, and a law school in three campuses. The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) classifies FEU as autonomous, the highest classification for a university. 

University of Pretoria in South Africa is the lead partner for Africa. The University recently launched its Center for Asian Studies in Africa (CASA). The Center will be introduced to AMIC participants during the Conference. (END)

Recording of AMIC Dialogue on Commonalities, Diversities, and Complexities of Asian and Western Communication Theories, 26 January 2023 via Zoom

Last 26 January, AMIC hosted the online Dialogue on Commonalities, Diversities, and Complexities of Asian and Western Communication Theories.

Over 200 communication scholars and educators joined the webinar which had Dr. Wimal Dissanayake, Dr. Yoshitaka Miike, and Dr. Mark Deuze as learning experts.

In his statement read by AMIC Secretary-General Ramon R. Tuazon, Dr. Dissanayake highlighted the need for Asian communication to ‘play a very conspicuous role’ in the exchange of cultural riches between Eastern and Western countries.

Dr. Deuze challenged communication scholars to determine the stories ‘that truly connect and unite peoples without requiring them to become all the same’ and how practitioners can help in ‘developing, furthering, publicizing, and promoting’ these stories.

Dr. Miike cited four specific directions for the future of Asian communication theories and shared five competing and complementary ethical values ‘that both local community and global society are struggling to balance.’

Learn more about their views on communication theories. Tune in to the recording of the dialogue via this link https://youtu.be/OHxivCv8Wh8.