“Stop calling us local.”

Journalists based in Cagayan de Oro, Ozamis, Iligan, Surigao, Bukidnon, Zamboanga and Butuan shun the term, “local” to mean journalists working outside Metro Manila.

In a seminar-workshop on trauma in Cagayan de Oro over the weekend, participants agreed that there is a politically-correct term to counter the stigma that the label negatively connotes.

The Philippine Press Institute and the Philippine Press Council held the first roundtable discussion on the issue of libel and its proposed decriminalization on March 22, 2012 in Manila.

The discussion gathered 20 guests representing academe, broadcast media, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the Center for International Law represented by Atty. Harry Roque.