Blog Watch formed to monitor the Phillipines election

A group of 19 bloggers in the Phillipines are getting together to harness the power of the blog in reporting important election related-stories that may not receive as much attention from the country’s mainstream media.

Entitled Blog Watch,it is a project of Vibal Foundation and its news and features website Philippine Online Chronicles and aims to use new media to present a multiperspective, multimedia coverage of next year’s elections.

contributors are diverse, from a teenage student to a 61-year-old grandma. That is why they have very diverse opinions and that makes our commentaries really attractive to our readers because they want to make informed choices,”

12 journalists killed in the Philippines

Quite appalling news coming out of the Philipines yesterday.

Reporters without borders reporting that

At least 12 journalists were killed today in Maguindanao province (on the southern island of Mindanao) by armed men, including two policemen, linked to the province’s governor, a supporter of President Gloria Arroyo. More than 30 other people were murdered. Some of the victims were beheaded.

They describe it as

“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,”

as

The convoy of Mangudadatu supporters, accompanied by journalists, had been on its way to an electoral bureau to file documents related to his candidacy, which the gunmen wanted to prevent. The fatalities included Mangudadatu’s wife, sister and other relatives. The governor’s son is also alleged to have been involved in the massacre.