The Filipino Press Group of Sydney is a loosely organised group of Filipino-Australian reporters, editors, radio and television broadcasters, cartoonists, columnists, photographers, authors, publishers, producers, bloggers and media liaison officers working in or genuinely interested in practising journalism as such in Australia’s mass media.
A handful of newly settled Filipino journalists in Sydney began gathering casually albeit irregularly in the late-1970s at the old Journalists’ Club in Sydney’s CBD. By the mid-1990s, the journalists met more regularly until 2006, when they formally named The Filipino Press Group of Sydney to include not only practising members of the press but also men and women not necessarily employed in mass media but with a strong passion for the practice of journalism in all its forms and platforms.
The group meets once a month – not as a requirement – at a designated venue in the Sydney metropolitan area to exchange ideas and to help each other develop as better craftsmen and women in their field. It has no formal structure; members instead take part in ’round table’ meetings with no head or hierarchy but for a permanent convenor to guide the ‘club’.
In between these meetings, members exchange ideas via email exclusively for members.
The group has no officers, requires no membership dues and has no strict requirements – structural or personal – but to be active and genuinely interested in the practice of journalism and to take part in some activities initiated by a member or members. A member only represents himself or herself, as an individual, and not as a representative of any public or private media.
Our emblem or logo, above, represents the four basic ‘Ws’ we seek in search of the truth: What, Who, When, Where. The five stars form the Southern Cross in tehe sky as part of the Australian flag design.
JAIME K PIMENTEL, convenor
Filpresssyd 