Revving up the Citizen Press Councils: Dealing with Grievances Against Media
Revving up the Citizen Press Councils
Dealing with Grievances Against Media
By Venus L. Elumbre
For mass media to function well, an avenue for public grievance against media excesses is necessary. Otherwise, people could resort to other means such as violence and harassment against journalists who they deem have offended them.
That was the idea behind the setting up of Citizen Press Councils (CPCs) in several parts of the country. Members of both media and the community recognize that enabling the public to lodge complaints makes for a better press.
“If you engage the society around you to complain, then you get not a weaker press but a stronger press. And hopefully, a better press,” said Melinda Quintos de Jesus, executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
In a roundtable discussion on CPCs last Sept. 27 in Davao City organized by the CMFR, representatives from the established CPCs in Cebu, Manila, Palawan, and Baguio shared their experiences and the developments in their respective areas. New CPCs in Dumaguete and Bacolod were also discussed.
Cebu takes the lead
The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC), now registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has gone an extra mile since its reactivation last year.
The CCPC has put up a website (www.cebucitizenspresscoun-cil.org) that contains the CCPC’s rules of procedure and shows viewers how to file complaints and how the Council acts on them. Facts on the CCPC, links to Cebu media outfits, and a list of Cebu journalists can also be found on the website.
According to Sun.Star Cebu’s Cherry Ann Lim, the CCPC accepts two kinds of complaints: those that have to do with accuracy and those with the right to reply. These are covered by the Code of Practice which was drafted on Feb. 3.
However, the CCPC does not just serve as a complaints body. “It is more of a channel of dialogue between the community and the press so that better standards are adopted,” said Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Juan Mercado.
Responsible reporting
During Press Freedom Week in Cebu last September, CCPC invited members of the academe, the Catholic Church, police, and business to discuss how the media could be more responsible in their reporting.
As a form of self-regulation, CCPC members had agreed on standards for reporting crime. The guidelines, which would be adopted by Cebu’s three English broadsheets and two Bisaya tabloids, encourage the media to exercise caution when identifying suspects in crime reports.
Editors of Cebu newspapers had decided not to run stories or publish photos of suspects being paraded by the police, according to Mercado.
A new committee was formed to study guidelines for reporting on religious affairs, women, and children.
The CCPC also lobbied for the Senate passage of two media-related bills. These are the inclusion of broadcast, wire, and Internet journalists under the protection of the Sotto law (House Bill 2960) and the limiting of the venue of libel suits against journalists to location of the office of the publication or station (House Bill 77).
Awareness problem
Lack of public awareness has been a long-standing problem in the Philippine Press Council (PPC), according to Philippine Press Institute (PPI) chair Jose Pavia.
The PPC, which was established in the late 1960s under the PPI, went on an awareness campaign which involved going to all the information offices of government agencies in Manila and in campuses where people were informed about the Council and how it works.
“We’re beginning to realize that being passive is not the answer,” Pavia said.
For its part, Bulacan-based community paper Mabuhay gathered people from the community for a discussion on the press. It also held a seminar-workshop for campus journalists in Malolos during its silver anniversary.
Trouble in Palawan
The killing of radio journalist Fernando Batul on May 22 had triggered alarm in the Palawan media. A series of conflicts ensued: the dispute between Batul’s radio station (dyPR) and that of Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn (dyER), threats to lives of Bandillo ng Palawan’s Yasmin Arquiza and Jofelle Tesorio, and the filing of a complaint by the Palawan Press Club against Batul’s colleague Lourdes Paet.
At first, the Palawan Community Media Council (PCMC) planned to mediate so it could help calm the situation in Palawan, said PCMC chair Oscar Evangelista.
He proposed to PCMC members to hold a media forum first, and then form a “conciliation” committee that would include non-PCMC members to serve as mediators between the conflicting parties.
After talks with PCMC members and other groups like CMFR, Evangelista thought mediation could be a good idea. However, after consulting with the concerned parties, Evangelista realized there was no point in mediating.
“I realized that mediation at that point was not going to be feasible simply because nobody was willing to be mediated,” Evangelista lamented. Because of the tense situation, he decided that a cooling-off period was needed.
After the PCMC had lost some of its members, Evangelista said he aimed to increase its member-ship from 9 to 15. Last August, the reorganization of the PCMC started by inviting prominent media and civil society persons to become its members.
Evangelista also proposed the evaluation of the Palawan media.
“The direction of the PCMC is to try to help the press club and media itself in a forward-looking manner where suggestions from the evaluators will be our mandate to try to move on and help media in Palawan,” Evangelista said.
Media literacy in Baguio
As suggested in the CPC workshop last year, the central activity of the Baguio Citizens Press Council (BCPC) is media literacy education, with mass communication students as targets.
“We want to explain to the young people that the citizen should be the watchdog of the watchdogs,” said BCPC chair Rolando Fernandez.
A workshop for students at the start of the second semester in Baguio communication schools is being planned. Fernandez requested that CMFR provide the resource speakers and funding for the program.
Also, the BCPC will be formally reintroduced to the Baguio media in a media summit on November.
Dumaguete and Bacolod CPCs
Two CPCs have emerged, signaling the start of the expansion of CPCs in the south.
One of the two new CPCs is the Dumaguete Press Council (DPC), which was founded in May 24, 2005 during the Duma-guete Press Club’s celebration of the World Press Freedom Day.
A takeoff from the Com-munity Advisory Board of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the DPC is the only press council in the country that does not have non-media persons as members, said Dumaguete Metro Post publisher-editor Alex Pal.
The reason for this setup, according to Pal, was if that members from the public themselves became the subject of reports that they deem offensive, they could influence the outcome of the investigation on the complaint.
So far, the DPC had initiated activities involving press freedom, among which is a forum on media killings. Since DPC is relatively new, no complaints have been received yet. Complaints are sent directly through text and email to media outlets.
CMFR’s De Jesus suggested that DPC make it part of its mandate to seek the commitment of its members in responding to the complaints and holding a proper hearing.
Unlike that of Dumaguete, the Bacolod Press Council (BPC) has not taken off yet as it (as of press time) is still in the preparatory stage.
The BPC will be based in either the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos or the University of St. La Salle, which both have strong mass communication departments, according to Allen del Carmen of The Visayan Daily Star.
Links with the online community, KBP, and the Negros Press Club are also planned in establishing a CPC in Bacolod.
The existing and new CPCs hope that with the progress made in their areas, the public would become more responsive and that threats to journalists would be lessened.
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