CMFR Leadership

CMFR’s Executive Director

MELINDA QUINTOS DE JESUS gathered resources and colleagues from different sectors to establish CMFR. As a working journalist herself, Ms. de Jesus was among the women journalists who wrote critically of the Marcos regime as a columnist in the Bulletin Today. She wrote on the excesses of the regime, cases of disappearances and warrantless arrests and detention, and killings of activists during latter years of Marcos administration. In 1983, she, along with other critical women writers, was eased out of her post as a columnist and moved to become deputy editor and columnist of the newsmagazine Veritas Newsweekly, which was on the forefront of the “alternative press,” a clutch of publications which provided news that the Marcos dictatorship suppressed. She became its editor in chief in late 1986 until its closure in 1988. She wrote her column for a number of Manila dailies (Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Evening News, Isyu) and worked as a commentator for both radio and television talk shows.

In 1989, she organized CMFR where she continues to work as executive director. As executive director, Ms. de Jesus conceptualized the institutional framework and design of CMFR’s core programs: media monitoring to promote professional values in the practice of the press as well as press freedom protection. She is the publisher of the annual journalism review Media Times.

She has developed training programs on media and the justice system, human rights reporting, peace journalism, coverage of the marginalized sectors (women and children, LGBT, indigenous peoples), and other emerging issues in the news agenda. She continues to develop initiatives, such as the media literacy project. She has been a speaker, panelist, and resource person at international conferences and meetings. She has also served as consultant for journalism projects, including media-oriented networks.

Ms. De Jesus has served several terms as a member of the Council of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) Council and the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD). She is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and the Philippine-based Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc. (FFFJ).

She was journalist-in-residence at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a fellow of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy based at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Ms. De Jesus received the Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Fellowship for Professional Development in 2000 in recognition of her efforts to strengthen Philippine democracy by promoting higher standards of media responsibility and professionalism.

Board of Trustees

CMFR is governed by a charter and a Board of Trustees. The current members are the following:

  • Melinda Quintos de Jesus;
  • Tina Monzon Palma is a leading news anchor in the television industry with wide experience in news and public affairs having worked in leading TV stations in Manila;
  • Vergel O. Santos, media critic, is the publisher and editorial board chairman of the BusinessWorld. He has served as editor of The Manila Times when it was first revived after Martial Law. He also worked as director of the Philippine News Agency;
  • Lisa O. Periquet, Philippine Art Events;
  • Ed Lingao, Journalist;
  • Francis Estrada, Institute of Corporate Directors;
  • Lorna Kalaw-Tirol, Journalist;
  • Carlos H. Conde, Human Rights Watch;

CMFR’s current officers are:

Melinda Quintos de Jesus – President and CEO
Tina Monzon Palma – Chairman
Lisa O. Periquet – Treasurer
Lorna Kalaw-Tirol – Corporate Secretary

Leaders of the press community and CSOs in the Philippines who served in the Board previously include:

Dr. Jose Abueva (Kalayaan College)
Dr. Lydia Balatbat-Echauz (Far Eastern University)
Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., J.D. (Ateneo de Manila University)
Mr. Santiago Dumlao Jr. (PHINMA Group)
Atty. Fulgencio Factoran Jr. (Gaia South Inc.)
Paulynn Paredes Sicam (Journalist)
Maria Isabel G. Ongpin (President of Museum Foundation of the Philippines and Director of Friendly Care Foundation)
Luis V. Teodoro (Journalist, Journalism Professor at the University of the Philippines  College of Mass Communication)

10 responses to “Officers”

  1. Freedom Watch » The Days of Cory Aquino says:

    […] By Melinda Quintos de Jesus […]

  2. Freedom Watch » CMFR announces new Ongpin fellows; Lingao 2010 Marshall McLuhan Fellow says:

    […] the event, CMFR Executive Director Melinda Quintos de Jesus also announced the formation of the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar Fellows as a group that will […]

  3. Media Watch » Sidebar: When is a columnist too partisan? says:

    […] Luis V. Teodoro with research by Rupert Francis D. Mangilit and John Reiner M. […]

  4. Media Watch » Columnists, Partisans and Conflicts of Interest says:

    […] Luis V. Teodoro with research by Rupert Francis D. Mangilit and John Reiner M. […]

  5. CMFR announces new Ongpin fellows; Lingao 2010 Marshall McLuhan Fellow | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

    […] Executive Director Melinda Quintos de Jesus also announced the formation of the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar Fellows as a group that will […]

  6. Sidebar: When is a columnist too partisan? | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

    […] Luis V. Teodoro with research by Rupert Francis D. Mangilit and John Reiner M. Antiquerra <div […]

  7. Columnists, Partisans and Conflicts of Interest | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

    […] Luis V. Teodoro with research by Rupert Francis D. Mangilit and John Reiner M. […]

  8. Building up People Power: the role of the alternative press | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

    […] Officers […]

  9. Remembering JOSE PAVIA: Journalist and Freedom Fighter | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

    […] Officers […]

  10. Juyer says:

    Your group complains about threats to anti-Duterte journalists. But you DO NOT reign in the lies, skewed interpretations, sensationalist pessimism, and irrationality, just to name a few, of reporters and editors from ABS-CBN, GMA, Inquirer, Phil Star, Reuters, Asso Press, AFP, TV5, etc.

    You bully people like Pres. Duterte and even pro-Marcos people, by printing lies, passing them off as facts, and then whining and complaining as if you’re the standard of ethical behavior in the Phils.

    You people CANNOT even define Martial Law, much less explain the Constitutional theories about the concept, and you print stupid statements like “Martial Law victims.” How can people be victimized by a political concept?

    And you stating that Maria Ressa presented a sound argument about Duterte’s online army is like saying Rapplers hagiography about Noynoy Aquino’s “Legacy” is journalism.

    You’re not journalists! You are hypocrites with the power to publish!