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Press freedom and campus journalism

(This is the brief of this columnist’s keynote address during the Ilocos Region wide student press convention on September 9, 2005 at the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, Ilocos Sur)

Your theme: “Strengthen our ranks and uphold campus press freedom” is laudable.

First, you aim to consolidate your ranks as campus journalists from the different student publications in this region. With these wide areas covered, the physical environment does not serve as a barrier in your organizing tasks.

Second, you aim to uphold campus press freedom, which is the particular expression of that elusive press freedom we all seek and aspire for.

Personally, I do not distinguish campus journalist from those who exercise the profession whether from the mainstream or alternative media. I consider all of us as journalists but with various levels of involvement and areas of coverage.

We confront the same problems and we exist under the same society. Our roles or responsibilities as journalists – whether from the mainstream, alternative, or campus - are the same. These roles and responsibilities should always be contextualized under the present reality, particularly our situation.

Press freedom is among the rights contained under the Bill of Rights provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. It is among those included or connected with the Freedom of Expression.

In relation to the Press freedom, the other rights are the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, the right of association, the right to access to information on matters of public concern and not to be detained solely by reason of one’s political beliefs and aspiration.

As it is among the paramount civil and political rights, it must not be transgressed by the state – directly or indirectly. It must always be recognized and protected at all times by the state and its agents. Else, the state and its agents are chargeable of violations – human rights violations. In fact, under the Bill of Rights, the state and its agencies are prohibited from enacting laws or policies that contravene Press Freedom and those connected with the freedom of expression and the Bill of rights.

However, the Philippine state retains laws and continuously advances policies that serve as barrier in the full exercise of our press freedom and freedom of expression.

Libel law

Among the laws that still exists is the antiquated libel law. Incorporated under the Revised Penal Code, libel is classified as a criminal offense. Introduced by the colonizers mainly to silence dissenting ideas, this is retained to silence a journalist from the full exercise of his freedom of the press. If we honestly exercise our press freedom to the fullest, the libel serves as the Sword of Damocles hanging over our head.

With the reality that our profession is among the lowest paid and with the expensive, rigid and tedious court processes, a journalist charged with libel will either give up facing the charge or to prove his innocence but may go to jail first because of the bail problem, like the absence of funds for his temporary freedom. There were several cases under this kind of situation.

Media practitioners, both in the national capital region and in the provinces, suffer from the ill - effects of libel cases. Our colleague from the NUJP chapter of Baguio-Benguet was slapped with a libel case when he exposed the so-called issuance by a government agency of midnight ancestral land titles. Though the concerned Prosecutor trashed the case, it had limited this journalist-accused on the full exercise of press freedom.

Another local paper was threatened of libel after it brought out in its true or false section the unexplained wealth of a former City Councilor. The case was settled after it served its purpose – to harass the staff of the said paper. These are among the libel cases documented by our organization and it all aimed for the harassment of media practitioners. We in fact challenged Congress to repeal the antiquated libel law as was done by the earlier practitioners like the United States of America, who repealed the libel law under their system six decades ago. This law contravenes the Bill of Rights provision on Press Freedom and had only serve as hindrance on our journalism practice as we expect concocted libel cases every time we expose newsworthy information with great public importance.

Assuming, but not accepting, that there might be some excesses by some media practitioners, they can be charged civilly for their misdeeds even with the repeal of the libel law. This situation is similar to that of campus journalism.

This antiquated law remains as the Sword of Damocles. We must call for its repeal.

AFP’s knowing the enemy

Another state policy of repression on our press freedom and freedom of expression is the Armed Forces of the Philippines “Knowing the Enemy”. This is a power point presentation which spells the policy which does not only transgress our press freedom.

The AFP equated legal institutions like the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), including the campus journalists’ organization College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) with the underground and armed organizations. This had not only threatened our existence as journalists. It is a blessing for them to eliminate journalists on the mere assumption that journalists are enemies of the state, without due process of law. It is a shortcut of the democratic process by already having them condemned without the benefit of due process recognized by the Philippine Constitution.

Journalists, especially those who braved to cover community issues, can be the easy victims of this AFP terrorist tagging. It exposed journalists to atrocities by the so-called “protectors of the people.”

Anti-terrorism bills

Another threat on our existence as journalists are the pending bills in congress allegedly aimed against terrorists. I think everyone among us here is against terrorism. However, the pending anti-terror bills seek to “protect” Filipinos from the scourge of terrorism by stripping them off of their Constitutional rights.

Journalists can be classified as terrorists when his sources were from the underground group or community oppositions on government projects. This undermines objective journalism where we always get the sides of those involved in any story for the newspapers or the radio or television. It kills the public right to know information of public interest.

In the Cordillera region, for example, where communities oppose mining applications or development activities that destroy their environment and source of livelihood, a journalist who covers and airs opposition may be tagged as terrorist under these bills. This is despite of the fact that the communities are defending their legal and inalienable rights over their ancestral lands.

The right to life

Even the most precious right to life had been transgressed by the state. Killings of journalists continued unabated. More than 60 journalists were already killed since 1986, the year that democracy was allegedly re-established. Last year alone, 11 journalists were killed and there were already six in the last eight months this year. This is a manifestation of the national situation. International media organizations, in fact, already considered the Philippines as the most dangerous country for journalists due to the unabated killings where most of the cases happened during the present administration.

The Cordillera and the Ilocos regions had not been spared from the killings of journalists. We have colleagues who were killed in line with the practice of their profession.

Rey Pedronio, a Sunstar reporter, was shot dead by members of the para-military group Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) when he exposed land grabbing and squatting activities of this group in the early 90’s.

Roger Mariano’s anti-jueteng crusade earned the ire of a PNP official, who was claimed to be the mastermind of the killing.

The killers of young journalist Stephen Omaois of Kalinga are out on bail despite the strong evidence against them. We ask: “Are the killings a policy to silence the truth?”.

What should be done?

With the above situation of the media in our society, your effort for this activity is laudable indeed. You do not only provide a venue to hone your journalists’ skills but also a venue to discuss the different issues that affect you as campus journalists. Most of your issues are the so-called rights based, but they cannot be considered as rights if we will not work for a situation where these rights are to be fully practiced.

We need to join hands for campaigning against the laws and policies that serve as barriers for full exercise of these rights while we push for our campus based rights and welfare.#

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