Legal competency training manual for journalists

Covering Philippine criminal proceedings is not easy. Lawyers and judges have a language of their own The extensive use of legal jargon in the courtroom can prevent anyone, including journalists, from understanding what’s happening in a case, much more to report on it. With simultaneous motions before it, court proceedings may be difficult to follow.

To help address these difficulties, with support from Freedom House, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility asked Prima Quinsayas, legal counsel of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, to define legal terms, provide an overview of the procedures, rules and regulations which govern the Philippine legal system, and how lawyers defending criminal suspects can use these to delay the proceedings. CMFR also asked Quinsayas to provide the same overview in Filipino.

The same overview and translation were used and discussed during the CMFR Legal Competency Training in May 2012.

Quinsayas’s report will be added as a chapter in the legal competency training manual CMFR published in 2011. The manual, published with support from Freedom House, was intended to develop a well-informed and pro-active press which can report more fully to the public the progress or failure of the prosecution of those accused of involvement in the killing of journalists as well as to enhance their capacity to meaningfully report, comment on, and provide analyses and explanatory reports on other court cases. The 2011 manual included presentations from officers of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) which CMFR engaged to conduct the first Legal Competency Training it offered in May 2011.

CMFR has noted a general weakness of press coverage of both the cases involving the killing of journalists and other cases involving human rights. The result is a low level of public awareness of related aspects of press freedom and free expression, which contributes to the persistence of impunity and violence that afflict not only journalists but all citizens.

Following are excerpts from Quinsayas’s report. CMFR also has the overview in Filipino.

Legal Competency Manual-Prima Quinsayas-Excerpts

Here is the cover of the CMFR’s legal competency manual, table of contents, and introduction note by CMFR executive director Melinda Quintos de Jesus.

CMFR Legal Competency Training Manual-Excerpts

For the complete copy of the legal competency manual, the additional chapter and the Filipino translation, and other information, please email CMFR (staff@cmfr-phil.org)

For more information about the themes addressed and the discussion among the participants in the CMFR Legal Competency Training held in May 2012, please read the story “Journalists urge Rules of Court review” published in the May-July 2012 issue of the PJR Reports.