[] A protest of ‘Carolinian Today’ campus writers -- held Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, at University of San Carlos (USC) Talamban campus in Cebu City -- called for “press freedom” and return of the publication’s office at the main campus. An eviction notice was posted on its door, setting a Jan. 15 deadline, as the space will be used for USC alumni affairs.
[] Joan Largo, vice president for administration, admits “repurposing” the Carolinian office but won’t call it eviction. She says the school’s “limited resources” require that it be assigned to the office needing the space most.
TAKEAWAYS from the protest and the position of the protesters and the USC administration:
IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE DEMONSTRATION, which landed the incident in the news media, was the notice to the staffers of “Carolinian Today’ (TC) posted on the door of its office in USC’s main campus that the Alumni Affairs Office would use the space.
A news report quoted the word “repurpose” of space. Joan Largo, vice president for administration, called it “prudent use of limited campus spaces, nothing more.”
Attorney Largo told me Wednesday, Jan. 22, the school’s Alumni Affairs Office is so “small and cramped” that there’s even no space to confer with visiting alumni. “In stark contrast,” she said the Carolinian office beside it “has been mostly unutilized and has remained closed for the most part of the school year.”
THERE ARE OTHER REASONS THOUGH, as can be gathered from what the protesters are seeking and as publicized by Althea Tumulak, Carolinian associate editor.
They also “demand,” aside from the return of their office space, (1) reinstatement of “Today’s Carolinian” as official student publication; and (2) funding of the magazine.
Tumulak reportedly also “highlighted bureaucratic hurdles” allegedly set up by the Office of Student Formation and Activities.
The demands coincide with the list in a petition being reportedly circulated among the students. A post on the Carolinian FB page enumerates more demands. (See last paragraph in next item.)
IS PRESS FREEDOM ANY WAY VIOLATED? A news report said the eviction “sparked widespread criticism from various student groups and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines or CEGP.” The news didn’t name one student group but quoted CEGP’s statement, which dwelt mostly on repression of the publication “for its critical reporting” of school administration policies. A Carolinian FB post said NUJP (National Union of Journalists of the Philippines)-Cebu joined the protest.
One can’t be certain about the issue of press freedom as the Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991, or Republic Act 868, has a number of flaws, topped by the law’s failure (a) to define “independence” and (to) provide a practical means for funding. In a July 21, 2018 “Media’s Public,” I tackled the question why the law has not worked.“
Related: “Seares: Why law on campus press freedom has not worked and may never work,” July 21, 2018. “Seares: Is campus press freedom less free than professional media?” April 21, 2018.
In April 2018, “The Bedan Roar” of the San Beda senior high school was prevented by school administrators from distributing 1,700 copies of the paper, which contained articles about then president Rodrigo Duterte’s illegal drugs war and the proliferation of fake news. San Beda officials considered the content “too critical and too negative.” The incident was one of then senator Leila de Lima’s bases for filing of a Senate bill that would’ve repealed and replaced the CJA. Obviously, she didn’t succeed as the now 37-year-old law is still cited by lawyers.
What happened in San Beda seven years ago wasn’t the case of the Carolinian, which, Attorney Largo said, continues to operate. It wasn’t clear though, as to which of the student publication is still operating: its Facebook page or its magazine or newspaper.
PETITION HAS LONGER LIST OF DEMANDS. TC’s Facebook FB page, in Wednesday’s posts, included a Supreme Student Council press release announcing student prosecutors. Of more interest and relevance were Tuesday’s FB posts, which included the news that a petition was being circulated to “demand that the USC administration recognize Today’s Carolinian as the school’s official student publication, reinstate TC funding and offices, support the freedom of TC coverage and waive the traditional and bureaucratic application process of the OSFA, or Office of Student Formation and Activities.”
PART OF FREEDOM’S COST. The TC post on Facebook also said the publication has been operating “independently” since 2019, “without funding from the university.” It also said donations may be made “through our finance officer.”
The school administration may not be repressing press freedom. But it may not also be encouraging it by not helping collect funds for the student publication.
Publication fee had long been part of the charges billed and collected by schools to fund student publications. Attorney Largo said the administration “does not control any funds of the paper” and she is right: the reason is that the school no longer collects funds for the publication.
The thinking of some schools, I wrote earlier on the issue, is that if they can’t control content of the student publication, they shouldn’t help it by funding or collecting the funds for it. That’s a lesson on hardcore journalism that student journalists have yet to learn or accept.
Attorney Largo said the Carolinian case is just a matter of prudence on the use of resources. The same sense of prudence may apply too on the matter of helping the school paper collect funds or providing a workplace for its writers.
On that office, I asked Attorney Largo if the student journalists can have its office again, as it did after its office was also closed in August a year or two ago. Her answer: “The process on space utilization is in place. All the students have to do is follow the process.” They can always reach out to her for any student-related concern, she said.
LARGO SAYS CAMPUS JOURNALISM IS NEEDED, but there are limits to press freedom. “My personal view,” Attorney Largo told me, “is that press freedom is needed now more than ever.” She said there are many ills plaguing our society and citizens have to be vigilant, now more than ever.” Nothing to be gained in repressing press freedom “and repression is farthest from my mind,” she said.
“The enemy is not within the halls of USC, not in the USC family. The battle is to be fought out there, in the form of many social ills and government folly.”
Like the press freedom granted to professional journalists though, campus press freedom is subject to limitations such as laws on libel and contempt, sedition and inciting to sedition, and the like, which involves publication.
On student journalism in particular, Attorney Largo said, there’s the CJA, along with Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Memo 9, series of 2013, among others. On those laws, Largo said, “I assure you, there is no violation (by USC), even as I maintain there is no eviction.”
A REVISIT ON THE ISSUE will be useful in schools confronted or threatened with the problem of student publications. Then maybe Congress will look at the CJA again and finally correct inadequacies of the law.
More particularly, protagonists need to settle the issue of how much freedom campus journalists can exercise and how much control the school administration can wield.
When the Councilor Rey Gealon ordinance on students’ rights was discussed in the Cebu City Council in 2013, I wrote about probable irritants in the relations between school administrators and student journalists, particularly regarding content offensive to the school.
Related: “Media’s Public: Proposed Cebu City Council ordinance firms up rights of students to fees for student council and school newspaper,” Feb. 20, 2023.
Part of the Filipino culture is resisting and resenting a perceived assault from one’s own people with one’s own weapon. Some school owners and managers tend to rage against the school paper being used to hurt reputation of the institution and its administrators. A few others are control freaks who cannot accept a student publication operating independently of the school.
How independent shall the campus publications operate? A practical mechanism is needed and it’s not there in the CJA or the city ordinance.