Campus journalists call for passage of Campus Press Freedom Bill

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 4 May) — Campus press groups are calling on both Houses of Congress to pass the Campus Press Freedom Bill and for stronger protection and security for media practitioners, especially campus journalists and alternative media practitioners.

In a protest action Sunday afternoon, College Editors Guild of the Philippines – Davao (CEGP – Davao) chairperson Catherine Discorson intimidation and repression continue to exist both in campus publications in colleges and universities as well as within communities.

“Repressive policies and mechanisms of the state continue to repress us,” she said, citing the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and Anti-Terror laws that “continue to intimidate and put media practitioners’ lives at risk.”

Discorson said the pending Campus Press Freedom Bill will protect the campus journalists should it be enacted and implemented.

Members of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines – Davao (CEGP-Davao) and Student Unite Against Press Freedom Attacks and Censorship (SUPAC) mark World Press Freedom Day in Davao City on Sunday, 3 May 2026, by calling on Congress to pass the Campus Press Freedom bill, citing the need for stronger protection for student journalists. MindaNews photo by RAZL EJ TEMAN

In an interview, she said the experience the University of Mindanao’s student publication Primum made people aware that the press is always repressed.

“We hope we would be given genuine protection and security and the Campus Press Freedom Bill be passed, so that we can freely publish our reports and become a medium for critical discourse in our campus papers,” she said.

Rojan Sydrick B. Ditucalan, the Convenor for Student Unite Against Press Freedom Attacks and Censorship (SUPAC), recounted the experiences of campus journalists whose publications were  shut down, interfered with by their administrations, and red-tagged for “doing their jobs in telling the truth.”

“What happened to Primum was not an isolated case. This is a reflection of a broader attack against critical voices. Because of a single article that triggered the pulse of politics, they were told to ‘be neutral’,” he said in vernacular.

“But what is neutrality if injustice is very obvious? To choose not to stand is to favor those who are sitting in the position,” he added.

The groups also lit candles in honor of RJ Ledesma, the editor-in-chief of “Spectrum” and a writer for Padhimutad, who was among the fatalities labeled collectively as ‘Negros 19’. (Razl EJ Teman/MindaNews)