Masked Media Campaign won 2 Golds, a Silver and a Bronze at APAC Tambuli Awards, a pioneer global award show that recognizes effective brands with purpose.

MANILA — It’s another win for press freedom as advertising company Ace Saatchi & Saatchi took home several awards from the APAC Tambuli Awards for the NUJP Masked Media Campaign.

The company bagged two golds for the categories of Content Creation & Influencer Marketing and Responsible Citizenship, silver for Advocacy, and bronze for the Online to Offline category.

Earlier, Ace Saatchi & Saatchi also won the gold in Spikes Asia Awards last March 4 for the Masked Media campaign.

NUJP launched the Masked Media campaign on Sept. 21, 2020 during a rally for the commemoration of the 48th anniversary of Martial Law at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City, both as a fundraising project for the legal assistance of Filipino journalists and as a platform to raise awareness on the prevalent issues of press freedom in the country.

“One of the first things the dictator did was to shut down the free press, replacing it with a crony press that churned out lies about the “New Society” and totally ignoring the atrocities committed by his regime against the people,” NUJP said, referring to the timeliness of the campaign launch.

The campaign features face masks designed with a red hand covering the wearer’s mouth over a series of newsprints, turning a pandemic essential into a symbolic representation of the attacks and efforts to silence the Philippine media. All proceeds of the campaign go to the legal fund for journalists.

To date, the Masked Media has provided financial assistance to 18 journalists facing libel, cyber libel and trumped-up criminal charges amounting to P164,000. — Amara Bautista, NUJP Secretariat