Cebu’s Bisaya-language Press Covered Local Politics Most In First Three Weeks of the 2010 Election Campaign

For the first three weeks of the national campaign, Cebu-based Bisaya dailies Banat and SunStar Superbalita focused more on the local elections in Cebu than the presidential elections. Even less attention was given to the senatorial, party-list, and vice-presidential elections.

Of the candidates for president, Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. was the most frequently reported news subject, followed by Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., and Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III. The rest were not reported at all.

Among the party-list groups, only the Cebu-based anti-communist group Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) became a news subject, notably six times in Banat, of which three reports were positively slanted in ANAD’s favor.

These are among the findings of the Cebu Citizens Press Council (CCPC) which is monitoring the coverage by the Cebu press of the national and local elections. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, which has been monitoring media coverage of Philippine elections since 1992, has engaged CCPC as a partner for its monitor of the news media coverage of the 2010 elections.

Aside from Banat and SunStar Superbalita, the CCPC team is also monitoring the election coverage by the three English-language dailies in Cebu: Cebu Daily News, SunStar Cebu, and The Freeman. CMFR has posted the CCPC team’s analysis of coverage of the three English-language dailies during the first three weeks of the campaign.

For more information about this report and CMFR’s Monitor of the News Media Coverage of the 2010 Elections, visit CMFR’s Media and Elections microsite (www.cmfr-phil.org/mediaandelections/)

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