ILOILO CITY – The Iloilo Media-Citizen Council (IMCC) has been launched to serve as a reconciliatory group and promote responsible journalism in the age of social media.
ILOILO Media-Citizen Council (IMCC) officials and members take their oath before retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza (left) during a regional conference at UP-Visayas in Iloilo City. (Photo via Rjay Castor)
Interim chairperson Francis Allan Angelo, editor-in-chief of Iloilo-based Daily Guardian newspaper, said one of IMCC’s main roles is mediating grievances against members of the media that includes bloggers and vloggers.
Angelo said the IMCC can step in as a mediating body when mediation fails on the level of media outlets.
The IMCC Code of Practice emphasizes the basic tenets of journalism of “fairness, accuracy, and protection of vulnerable sectors” such as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Indigenous Peoples (IPs), women, and children.
Officials and members of the IMCC took their oath before retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza during a conference hosted by the University of the Philippines-Visayas.
With lawyer Jeremy Bionat as executive director, the IMCC is a multi-sector group consisting of representatives from Iloilo media outlets, the academe, business, and the legal sector.
The IMCC was created with the support of the International Training Programme of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Philippine Press Institute (PPI).
The IMCC is the second major media-citizen council in the Visayas following Cebu which was established in 2005.