On its second year, the Dionisio T. Baseleres Award for Excellence in Campus Journalism named Jameela Antoniette Mendoza, a graduate of Silliman University College of Mass Communication, as its awardee last March 23 at the SU Audio-Visual Theater I.
Mendoza, a broadcasting major who graduated magna cum laude, was the editor-in-chief of SU student paper the Weekly Silliman from August to October 2018. She joined tWS in 2014 during her sophomore year as a photojournalist, and then became the news editor. She also served as a news and feature writer when she returned to SU after a year-long foreign exchange student program in one of SU’s partner universities in Japan, Shikoku Gakuin University.
During the awarding ceremony, Mendoza received a gold medal and cash prize of PhP 5,000 from Dr. Rosario M. Baseleres, former SU College of Mass Communication dean and wife of the late Dionisio T. Baseleres.
The Baseleres family established the award in 2018 in honor of Dionisio T. Baseleres, who was the editor-in-chief of tWS during the Marcos regime and was imprisoned because of his critical views on the Marcos dictatorship. As a practicing journalist in the late 1970s, Baseleres also received death threats as the editor of an anti-Marcos community newspaper in Dipolog City wherein he continued to write editorials that exposed anomalies among government officials.
The award aims to inspire SU journalism students to be fearless in reporting the truth and to stand for the principles of journalism. It is given to senior mass communication students who have been actively involved as a member of tWS since their sophomore year, with the most number of well written news stories, in-depth or investigative reports, opinion/commentaries and editorials. A bigger weight will be given to stories published in community or national newspapers.
The recipient must have a major QPA of at least 2.7 as of the first semester of the school year, as certified by the Office of the University Registrar. The dean of the College of Mass Communication will form a special committee composed of members of the faculty and the College Secretary to deliberate on the selection process and to decide the winner among the applicants for the award. (PT)
