NEWS | Holding the Line: Filipino campus journalists continue to progress amidst threats and violations
By Mai Allauigan, Alexandra Kate Ramirez, Elaine Diaz
Amidst the Campus Press Freedom Day celebration, student publications continue to bear the brunt of state-sponsored attacks, with the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) recording almost 1,000 violations since 2010. Along with the remote learning set-up and the passage of the Anti-Terror Law (ATL), repression and threats continue with their various forms such as harassment, censorship, withholding of funds, administrative intervention, suspension of student editors and writers, red-tagging, and illegal arrests.
In the recent world press freedom index report, the Philippines ranked 138th among 180 countries for having a bad environment for journalism. Not absolved are student publications and journalists who suffer the brunt of government attacks and red-tagging, even by their school administration.
Cases of Violations
Across the country, the CEGP closely monitored the extent of campus press freedom violations. From 2000 to mid-2001, 2 cases of publication closure, 38 instances of fund withholding, 24 cases of censorship, and 15 cases for non-mandatory collection of campus student publication fees. In addition, 31 student publications experienced administrative intervention from their adviser, 22 were subjected to harassment, 10 involved the suspension or expulsion of editors and staff, and 38 for domicile cases.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office, a reported increase in press freedom violations has been recorded. Among the different violations is the continuous red-tagging and inclusion of student publications in the watchlist of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for allegedly recruiting members into the National People’s Army (NPA). Among those said to be the forefront of communist rebels are CEGP- SPARK, the official publication of Camarines Sur Polytechnic College (CSPC)-Nabua, Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU) The PILLARS, Mariners Polytechnic College Foundation (MPCF) — Canaman Campus The Seafarers’ Gazette, Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA)- Main Campus The Stateans Publication, Holy Angel’s University’s The Angelite, Cavite State University Imus The Flare, Kabataang Mamamahayag ng Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Collegian, SINAG, University of the Philippines (UP) Solidaridad, and Ang Pahayagang Plaridel.
In particular, members of the said publications received death threats from suspected troll accounts, leading to the usage of pen names to protect their writers’ identities. In a statement, the publications condemned that despite an existing law to safeguard campus journalists, the current provisions did not protect them from red-tagging incidents.
Meanwhile, in 2018, CEGP recorded 800 cases of campus press freedom violations, with at least 200 are related to withholding of funds. Almost 200 student publications, including publications under the UP Solidaridad, were at the brink of being defunded due to the non-mandatory collection of student publication fees.
Within the UP system, the UPLB Perspective received several violations, such as four cases of manipulation of results and appointment of the Editor-in-Chief in the past two decades, one case of physical assault by police forces. UP Cebu’s Tug-Ani also reported financial restrictions and censorship issues by citing provisions from the student manual to bar them from publishing written articles.
Due to this, the CEGP last year submitted a complaint to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for almost 1 000 violations against campus press freedom since 2010.
To safeguard or stifle?
Recognizing the vital role of the campus press during Martial Law, Republic Act №7079 or the Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991 was enacted on July 5, 1991, with the aim of upholding and protecting the freedom of the press even at the campus level. While the law was created to safeguard the campus press, advocates of press freedom argued that CJA was rather spineless and heavily flawed.
Danilo Arao, a journalism professor at UP Diliman, asserted that press freedom is hampered by funding issues. Other critics expressed the same concern since school administrators — or the government, in the case of state-funded schools — can withhold funds in an attempt to silence the campus press.
“Even if it explicitly guarantees campus press freedom, the CJA is inherently oppressive because there is no mandatory collection of student fees…Just like Congress, school officials use the ‘power of the purse’ to silence the critical campus press,” Arao stated.
Several students also revealed how their respective school administrations are disposed to respond negatively to published articles that are not aligned with the personal views of the people in charge — nor with the school’s values.
A student from Pasig City stated that publishing articles concerning the state of the nation — politics, government, the LGBTQIA+ community — is really frowned upon. While being in a Catholic school has its limitations, boxing students in the privilege that they are put into is not a good thing, they added.
Together with the lack of stable funding as well as material provisions on editorial independence, Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago and other representatives from the Makabayan bloc also cited the lack of a penalty clause in the CJA, which allows repressive school administrators to be left unscathed.
The CEGP asserted that the perpetrators of these acts take advantage of the spinelessness of RA 7079 and are encouraged to continue doing so because they know they will never be accountable for said crimes.
Government response and lack thereof
Just a month after the CEGP filed a complaint before the CHR and CHED regarding campus press freedom violations and seeking investigations, President Duterte signed into law the National Campus Press Freedom Day Act or RA 11440, celebrating the said event every 25th of July.
However, since this was implemented, little to none has been done by the national government to safeguard campus journalism and promote press freedom.
On July 23, led by CEGP’s current national deputy secretary-general Regina Tolentino, they filed a complaint about the accumulating cases of violations of the CJA. Among the calls emphasized by the CEGP is seeking the thorough investigation of CHED to provide resolutions and sanctions to the violations committed, reiterating that intimidation experienced by the press is not limited to alternative and mass media.
The CEGP report bared that apart from the toothless and loophole-filled CJA of 1991, the Duterte administration’s Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act had intensified different school administrations’ censorship, repression, and harassment of student publications.
The Duterte regime’s tirades against mainstream, alternative, and student media and organizations have in fact made the Philippines drop yet again another two ranks — from 136th to 138th out of 160 countries — in the recent World Press Freedom index made by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Duterte was also named one of the 37 global leaders as “press freedom predators” by RSF in 2021.
However, the Malacañang disputed both these reports, arguing that it was very much alive and well given the existence of media that are critical of the government. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque even cited the drug war reports used by retired International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to back his claim.
To genuinely uphold campus press freedom, Kabataan Party-list representative Sarah Elago has then renewed her push for the Campus Press Freedom (CPF) bill or House Bill 319. Originally filed in 2011 and re-filed in 2013 and 2016, the act seeks to amend the CJA’s provisions on the non-mandatory collection of the publication fee, the non-mandatory establishment of student publications, and the lack of a penalty clause.
“Enacted to uphold and protect the freedom of the press at the campus level and to promote the development and growth of campus journalism, the CJA, however crafted with noble intentions, has been found to contain serious flaws that resulted [in] even more violations, including attacks on editorial independence, instead of truly protecting the rights and welfare of student journalists,” Elago stated.
As of writing, the CPF bill has yet to appear on the House’s calendar.
