The country’s most outstanding regional newspapers will again take the center stage on April 28 as the winners in the Philippine Press Institute’s Civic Journalism Community Press Awards are announced at the Diamond Hotel Philippines. This is the highlight of the Institute’s 13th Annual Membership Meeting featuring the National Press Forum on “Reporting the 2010 Elections Now.”

Celebrating 13 years of excellence in community journalism, the prestigious awards program honors community newspapers that have shown exemplary work in editing, science and environmental reporting, business and economic reporting, photojournalism and editorial.

Since 2005, when the Konrad Adenauer Foundation ended its support, the awards have been undertaken solely by the PPI. But starting this year, The Coca-Cola Export Corp. will support the awards with civic journalism as their framework. Over the years, The Coca-Cola Export Corp. has supported PPI’s efforts to help improve community press through training courses particularly in civic journalism. The Philippine Association of Communication Educators, for its part, has been managing the awards through the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication since the beginning.

Starting 2008, civic journalism has been what the awards are about. This is in line with Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility program which, among other things, seek to promote journalism as a medium of community feedback and participation.

The finalists are: (Daily Category) Sun.Star Cebu (Cebu City), The Freeman (Cebu City), Cebu Daily News (Cebu City), Sun.Star Davao (Davao City), Punto Cental Luzon (City of San Fernando), and Sun.Star Baguio (Baguio City); (Weekly Category), Sunday Punch (Dagupan City), Baguio Midland Courier (Baguio City), Mabuhay (Bulacan), Balikas (Lipa City), The Sunday Negros Chronicle (Dumaguete City), West Leyte Weekly Express (Ormoc City) and Sun.Star Soccsksargen Business Weekly (Gen. Santos City).