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- December 19, 2024 16:29
FEU Advocate
January 26, 2025 19:44
Bente Kwatro
By Mark Vincent A. Durano, News Editor
No office, no funds, no recognition. When school administrations are at the forefront of violating the rights of campus journalists, suppression of student-centered reportage and services, such as in Today’s Carolinian’s recent office eviction, reflects their desperate attempt to silence genuine student representation amid calls for a liberated academic space.
The University of San Carlos (USC) posted an unsolicited notice on the Today’s Carolinian (TC) Downtown Campus office, the official student publication of USC, reusing their office as the administration’s alumni office, which was effective last January 15. This stems from TC’s refusal to be registered under USC’s Office of Student Formation and Activities. Similarly, TC’s Talamban Campus office was also exchanged for the Campus Ministry last August 2023.
TC’s resistance to be subjected under bureaucracy and red-taping is a form of exercising press freedom which was clearly violated by their arbitrary eviction.
On top of the removal of offices, the Cebu-based paper is crammed under bureaucratic policies, prohibiting them from covering major university events—including the intramurals, and from using campus facilities, such as rooms, in carrying out journalistic tasks.
Notably, TC had been operating fundless since 2019 when USC administrators fumed over the publication’s critical articles regarding the tuition and other fees increase (TOFI). Six years later, USC is set to hold another TOFI consultation with a familiar scheme in muzzling progressive academic freedom.
Student publications have long been conflicted by administrators on their role as informants boxed inside a campus. However, it must be clear that student papers do not just inform—the sole recognition given by students to label publications with “student” makes them a catalyst for politicizing the community and being at the frontline of academic representation.
Often, institutions do not acknowledge a student paper’s nature in exposing issues and criticality in addressing the community. With an offensive mindset, administrations cannot blame campus journalists for being progressive and genuinely pro-student.
As one of the biggest universities in Visayas, USC’s grip on their student publication taints the face of academic freedom by the institution’s suppression on the freedom of speech and expression. The administration must accept that critical reports are not defamation but a conscience in serving fellow students for the common good.
With the continuous commercialization and privatization of education in the country, suppression not only to campus journalists but also students in general reveals the corporate interests of schools rather than of its major constituents. This misalignment of orientation sets aside the quality of education that students expect to obtain and the safeguarding of academic freedom through community proactiveness.
Despite the existence of the outdated Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991, the nonmandatory recognition of the student paper and its autonomy, collection of funds, and provision of an office are weaponized against student journalists to curb their guaranteed rights.
On the contrary, the same law still provides that no school administration concerned should withhold the release of funds from the student publication.
TC’s experienced suppression is not an isolated case in Eastern Visayas nor even the whole country. Campus press freedom violations (CPFV) have long existed and continued to grapple student papers in committing to their editorial responsibilities. Unfortunately, a chilling effect permits undocumented violations, but these forms of suppression suggest nothing but for students to assert editorial independence and campus press freedom.
The College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines have documented at least 206 CPFVs from June 2023 to June 2024 wherein censorship, withholding of funds, and administrative interventions rose as the three most common forms of violation—all of which are blatantly manifested in USC’s issue.
Among these violations is University of Santo Tomas’ censorship on media organization TomasinoWeb’s photo which widely gained support in upholding press freedom. In the University of the Philippines Manila, official publication The Manila Collegian had been barred by the College of Dentistry from covering their events and even distributing their print issues.
Several publications, especially at a degree-granting unit level, are not recognized by their school administrations. For most institutions, only recognized or accredited organizations may receive funding. Without any budget, most students are forced to carry out journalistic missions from their own wallets, or worse ask from the students directly for additional funding which TC has been doing.
With a lone toothless act as CJA, student journalists are not protected in the Philippines. The Campus Press Freedom Bill which aims to repeal the previous law remains at large, delaying protective rights for student-journalists who are still silenced, let alone for those who cannot speak for themselves.
The law also does not provide any concrete action that can hold campus press freedom violators accountable such as USC, thus, a culture of impunity is widely reflected in the danger that professional media practitioners navigate through everyday. In the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 Global Impunity Index Rankings, the country ranked ninth, marking its consistent appearance in the list since 2008.
Unionizing campus presses is often overlooked as a responsibility of student-journalists, but with the scheme of CPFVs in the country, adding not just an echo to such issues won’t be as loud when we can be each other’s voices.
Student publications are independent entities made up of students and are serving the students. This recognition by the community should spell the freedom that campus journalists should innately have and not be demanded. But even with no office, no funds, no recognition, the call for academic freedom will continue to strive and administrations will never succeed to silence the pen—mightier than the sword.
(Photo courtesy of SunStar Cebu)