CATBALOGAN, Samar - The Antipolo City-based Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), a facility for journalists working with citizens, communities and institutions for social change, has invited at least 11 journalists from this region to compose the selected 50 tri-media members in the Visayas for a 2-day “governance reforms” seminar next week.

The summit, dubbed as the First Visayas Media Summit, will be held at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City this coming Feb. 24 and 25.

CCJD Executive Director Red Batario said some 50 journalists from different media organizations in the Visayas are expected to converge in this two-day summit “that will closely examine media’s role in democracy and in governance reforms.”

“The summit is (also) one of the action steps identified in the island Workshop in Media’s Role in Governance held in Cebu City in Nov. 2004,” Batario recalled.

According to him, “One of the major outputs of the islandwide workshops and the national conferences, which was the crafting of a 10-point media reform agenda named the Plaridel Declaration, will also be presented during the Visayas Media Summit in Iloilo City for validation and adoption as a common media reform framework.”

He added that the results of said previous workshops were integrated in the National Conference in Media Governance in December of same year as part of the “continuing efforts to engage media in governance reforms” through a project of the Media Stakeholders Group with the CCJD as the lead convenor, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Meanwhile, the 11 journalists from Eastern Visayas include Rachel Arnaiz, editor of the Northern Samar Weekly Express; Antonio Pueblos, station manager of Radyo ng Bayan-Calbayog; Ray Gaspay, publisher of the Samarnews.com; Rommel Rutor, editor of the Dateline Maqueda Newsweekly; Ricky Bautista, editor of the Samar Weekly Express; Laiminh Mabulay, editor of the Samar Monitor; Sentay Quitorio of Eastern Samar Bulletin; Lalaine Jimenea, editor of the EV Mail; Myra Tambor, anchorwoman of the DYMS-Catbalogan; Mariz Cano of DYAC-Baybay, Leyte; and Neil Glova of DYVL-Tacloban City.