TACLOBAN CITY – The Biotechnology for Life Media and Advocacy Resource Center (BMARC) and the Philippine Science Journalists Association, Inc. (PSciJourn) jointly announced the October 14 awarding of winners in this year’s Gawad Galing for Biotech Journalism.

The awards recognize, enhance and sustain the efforts of journalists in the Visayas, Mindanao and in Luzon who are writing stories on biotechnology in national newspapers.

The Gawad Galing for Biotech Journalism for scribes from the provinces and in national commercial newspapers and magazines, is being spearheaded by BMARC, which involves the Department of Agriculture, Biotech Coalition of the Philippines (BCP), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and SEAMEO-SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center (BIC).

The project is an annual search of outstanding performance in communicating and disseminating biotechnology information to the public by individual media practitioners and newspapers at the national and regional levels.

The institutional award is open to nationally circulated commercial print media establishments – broadsheet, tabloids, and magazines – which print news and feature stories, and photographs on biotech concerns.

The professional awards will be given to individual media practitioners whose news and feature stories have been published in nationally circulated newspapers and magazines, and photojournalists whose photographs have been published in the same news outlets.

The individual professional prizes are: first prize (P50,000), second prize (P40,000), third (P30,000), special prize for outstanding article (P25,000) and best photo (P25,000). The institutional winner will receive P25,000.

The awardees will also receive plaques.

The BMARC secretariat will lead the search committee, select the members of th Board of Justices (BOJ) and convene the BOJ.

The PCARRD, SEARCA-BIC, DOST-STII and BMARC secretariat will monitor the national newspapers and magazines to check the printed stories, from where the nominees will be selected.

The nominees should be Filipino citizens and Filipino-owned commercial media and establishments who which have published biotech stories from August 2004 until July 2005.

Nominations, submission of entries and the nominees’ brief bio-data should be submitted to the BMARC office on or before 31 July 2005.

*The institutional award is based on the media establishment’s sustained support to information dissemination on biotech.

*The professional award is based on the substance of stories (accuracy of facts, research data presented and length of story) – 40%; language and style (level of comprehensibility, creativity, use of popular words, readership appeal) – 40%; and prominence and relevance (frequency of write-ups, space allocation, impact to the needs of country and people) – 20%.

The BOJ may formulate more specific criteria to select the winners.

The winners shall be notified by letter, telephone and or/ e-mail.

The board of judges has a right not to declare a winner for a specific prize. (JCG)