Pro Patria Journalism Awards 2021 Chairman BLA Amading Valdez Delivers Powerful Rationale of Pro Patria Journalism Awards 2021

BLA Amading Valdez delivered a powerful rationale with respect to the Pro Patria Journalism Awards 2021 last June 17, 2021 via Zoom virtual platform and broadcast live on the Facebook page of the Rotary Club of Manila. Below is the rationale he delivered:

Rationale of the Pro Patria Journalism Awards by Dean Amado Valdez Chairman Pro Patria Journalism Awards 2021 Board Legal Adviser, RY 2020-2021

It has been said that “news is the first draft of history.” And that draft is written through our newspapers, our television, our radio networks.” The danger is when “history” becomes “a set of lies agreed upon”. This happens when there is only one newspaper, one television, only one radio network that exists. We are happy that we have multi-media outlets which are represented by our awardees. Their importance is that they not only tell us what is happening, they are also our records, our daily national diaries or journals. When the future generation will try to understand their own world, they will look back to the records of today, to the archives of these newspapers, TV and radio stations of our awardees today.

It is said that “history repeats itself” but we would rather say, “history should never repeat itself”, not to repeat the wrongs of our present. Our awardees have important roles to play. That the wrongs of the present, the false leaders of this generation, will be avoided, rejected and forgotten by our children and the next generation.

Previously on television was a Hongkong publisher who was charged and imprisoned for telling the truth on what is happening in that city. It brings into focus the sacrifice given in terms of personal safety, resources, and human lives just to print a newspaper or a tv or radio network to broadcast a record or journal of what is happening in that part of the world. The late Yuyitung, publisher of Chinese Commercial News was executed in 1942 for refusing to tell a lie. That potential danger, that sense of threat to the personal security that confronts our awardees are REAL. Despite that, they push the limit of our freedom – the right to think and express what we think.

For their LOVE OF COUNTRY, we are giving to these institutions - the: 2021 PRO PATRIA JOURNALISM AWARDS