Cebu press urged to adapt, reinvent

Fr. Roberto Ebisa officiated the holy Mass that marked the opening of the 27th Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration.| Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Let go of your comfort zones and reinvent yourselves.

This was the message of Fr. Roberto Ebisa to the Cebu media community as he celebrated a Holy Mass that marked the opening of the 27th Cebu Press Freedom Week on Sunday, September 15.

The entire Cebu media industry celebrates Press Freedom Week every third week of September which also commemmorates the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972.

The theme for this years Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration is “Journalism Transformations.”

Ebisa, who also heads Catholic radio station dyRF-Radio Fuerza and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, urged Cebu media practitioners to adapt in the current times in order for them to survive and remain relevant to the society.

“By letting go  I mean, to welcome new ways of doing things, new possibilities, re-invent ourselves,” Ebisa said.

As the media industry comes to the digital age, Ebisa said practitioners may feel that they have lost their comfort zones when “veracity seems a matter of the past as velocity takes center stage.”

Ebisa said media practitioners should have hope in finding their lost comfort zones by reinventing themselves to fit to the digital age without compromising the values of journalism.

“We in the press are far more greater than the challenges  haunting us. It is okay to be afraid but  we  don’t let fear cripple us.  We are not like the monkeys of Africa as have the courage to  let go. We will adapt, we will transform, we re-invent ourselves- and  there will be rebirth…we are butterflies!” Ebisa said. | dcb