Cebu journalist new McLuhan Fellow

Eileen MangubatVETERAN journalist Eileen G. Mangubat is the 2013 Marshall McLuhan Fellow.

The Embassy of Canada, which is behind the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship, said Mangubat, publisher and acting editor-in-chief of Cebu Daily News, is being recognized for her noteworthy efforts to steer and maintain an independent and professional community press in Cebu. She is the third community journalist to receive the McLuhan Fellowship.

The fellowship, named after the world-renowned Canadian communication scholar, is the embassy’s flagship media advocacy initiative. Launched in 1997 to encourage responsible journalism in the Philippines, the fellowship underlines Canada’s belief that strong media is essential to a free and democratic society.

The program, with financial support from Sun Life of Canada, provides the winner with a study tour to Canada. The winner will also have the chance to sit as a fellow at the McLuhan Institute in Toronto.

Canada’s Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder will present the award to Mangubat Tuesday, 9 a.m., at her inaugural lecture at the Marcelo B. Fernan Press Center in Lahug, Cebu City.

(VERA Files trustees Ellen Tordesillas, Luz Rimban and Yvonne Chua are McLuhan fellows, as are its contributors Diosa Labiste and Tess Bacalla.)