UST ALUMNA and Philippine Daily Inquirer founder Eugenia Duran-Apostol urged budding journalists to focus on the need for an “education revolution” rather than on political issues during the Third Jose Villa Panganiban Professorial Chair for Journalism lecture last Jan. 27 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex auditorium.
“I feel that no matter who is at the head of our government, it is the students, and the people who will determine the final outcome of our future. The future is so important, that our education should be taken care of more strongly and better than ever before,” Apostol said. “The news just comes and goes, but the important thing is that our children will realize what is really needed in our country, that’s more important than politics.”
Apostol also addressed issues on press freedom in the country, saying that government intervention is one of the greatest threats to it.
“The government people will try to change the news, if they try to do something that is not true (then) that would be the greatest threat to our press freedom,” she said. “And if the newspapers do not fight back, then (the situation worsens).”
The Litt. B Journalism magna cum laude graduate from the then Faculty of Philosophy and Letters stressed the importance of determination in responsible journalism.
“It’s hard to be a good journalist,” Apostol told an audience of around 200 students, composed mostly of journalism students and campus journalists. “To be a good journalist, you really have to dedicate yourself and really try to close your eyes to temptations.”
In addition, Apostol, the first recipient of the University of the Philippines Gawad Plaridel in 2004, advised the aspiring journalists to stand for their beliefs.
“If you believe in something, be ready to die for it,” she said.
The lecture, organized by the Varsitarian in cooperation with the Journalism Society, is an annual lecture on currents and issues on journalism and the media arts. The professorial chair lecture, which is lodged with the Faculty of Arts and Letters, was established in 1999 and was named after Panganiban, who founded the Varsitarian in 1928.
