The Asian American Journalists Association’s Asia chapter (AAJA-Asia), in partnership with the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Philippines (UPCWGS), is pleased to invite Filipino’s news professionals and students in journalism to attend the launch of its Stylebook for Gender-Sensitive Reporting Tagalog version on Monday 18 August 2025. The event will feature a panel discussion about how journalists can improve their reporting and better represent our fast-changing world by portraying all genders as equally valued and diverse.
AAJA-Asia is a nonprofit organization representing a multi-ethnic community of local and international media professionals and students in journalism committed to supporting a vibrant press in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2021, it launched the Advancing News Diversity in Asia (ANDA) project with the objective to define diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from an Asia perspective and support efforts to improve diversity and representation in newsrooms and news coverage throughout Asia.
AAJA-Asia members believe that it is a mission of journalism to accurately reflect the world, report inequalities, and give a voice to those oppressed or rendered invisible.
Every day, people around the world face discrimination and persecution because of their gender, sexual identity or sexual orientation – yet not all news coverage provides a fair and accurate portrayal of these groups. In news worldwide, women and LGBTQ people are often ignored or misrepresented.
The stylebook for gender-sensitive reporting aims to help Asia’s journalists to portray all genders as equally valued and diverse and better represent our fast-changing world. It has been produced with the support of the Google News Initiative and the contribution of over thirty news professionals and representatives from Women’s and LGBTQ groups from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea and Singapore, united by the belief that a review of the language journalists use in their reporting helps them to do their job more effectively. The stylebook is published in Chinese, English, Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog.
The stylebook’s Tagalog version (available for download here) will be launched by AAJA-Asia at UPCWGS, at 2:00 pm, on Monday 18 August. News professionals involved in the stylebook’s design will share their motivations for contributing to this project, the challenges they met and the lessons they learnt from this experience. Panelists will also share tips and advices on gender-sensitive reporting.
Whether you want to make gender your beat or simply need tips to spot how gender is playing out in Indonesia and beyond, this session will take you through the basics of gender-sensitive reporting, from identifying stories to finding sources to thinking about impact and engagement.
EVENT DETAILS
- Date: Monday 18 August 2025, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
- Venue: UPCWGS, Magsaysay corner Ylanan Street, University of the Philippines Campus, Quezon City
- Registration deadline: August 17
- Tickets: Free event.
- Registration: https://bit.ly/AAJA-AsiaUPCWGS_Gender-Sensitive_Reporting
Register here
SPEAKERS
Christian Go is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He received his Ph.D. in English Language and Linguistics from the National University of Singapore and was a visiting fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute. His research work focuses on language, gender, and sexuality, sociolinguistics, and critical pedagogy.
Jupiter Jr. Cabig is a queer educator and community journalist currently based in Davao City. He is a faculty member at the University of the Philippines Mindanao, where he teaches media and communication courses under the Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Media Arts program. Alongside his academic work, he serves as editor-in-chief of the Cotabato City-based newspaper Mindanao Exposé, circulated across the Bangsamoro region, Central Mindanao, and other parts of Mindanao. He also contributes feature articles to SunStar Davao and writes opinion columns for Davao Today. His advocacy spans crucial issues, including media and information literacy, quality education, human rights, gender equality, youth participation, and inclusive development. Through his multifaceted background and experiences, he strives to make a positive impact in the realms of education, journalism, and community development.
Maro B Enriquez is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Her stories have been published on Philstar.com, Rappler, VICE, the Christian Science Monitor, and the online and print versions of the South China Morning Post, with a focus on reporting on the intricacies of gender, and gender relations in the family. Aside from this, she also reports on reproductive health and other cultural issues in the Philippines. In 2023, she became the first chairperson of the Filipino Freelance Journalists’ Guild, an organization supporting Filipino freelance journalists nationwide.
Michelle Abad is a multimedia reporter at Rappler. She writes about the rights of women and children, migrant Filipinos, and labor. She was previously a researcher-writer at Newsbreak, Rappler’s investigative and research arm. Michelle has also helped cover the coronavirus pandemic, and the 2022 presidential campaign of former vice president Leni Robredo. Michelle first joined Rappler as an intern in 2018, when she was editor-in-chief of The GUIDON, Ateneo de Manila University’s official student publication. Michelle graduated with a degree in communication and an honorable mention. She was also awarded a Raul Locsin Award for Student Journalism for explanatory journalism. In 2021, her story on abused sex workers became a finalist for the Society of Publishers in Asia award for Excellence in Reporting on Women’s Issues. The following year, her investigative piece on sexual harassment in a Catholic school became a finalist for the Lasallian Scholarum Awards’ Outstanding Online Feature Story on the Youth and Education category. Michelle is mentored by strong women. She dreams of seeing all women sufficiently empowered, adequately protected, and on equal footing with other genders.
Roy Barbosa is the news and features editor of Manila Today, an alternative news outfit that covers a wide range of topics including political, social, and environmental issues in the Philippines. He is also the current chairperson of their media outfit’s chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Barbosa is well-regarded for his work in community, human rights and environmental journalism. He began his career as a campus journalist and eventually becoming the regional coordinator for the College Editors Guild of the Philippines National Capital Region (CEGP – NCR) where he helped rebuild and strengthen campus publications during the pandemic.
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