Author: Cebu Journalism & Journalists

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By Rev. Fr. Ramon D. Echica [Based on his talk at the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) media forum during Cebu Press Freedom Week 2019, held at MBF Cebu Press…

By Rev. Fr. Ramon D. Echica

[Based on his talk at the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) media forum during Cebu Press Freedom Week 2019, held at MBF Cebu Press Center in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City last Sept. 19, 2019. The other speaker at the forum was Jason A. Baguia, a communication teacher-researcher at U.P. Cebu and former Cebu Daily News columnist.]

I am offering my reflections on fake news neither as a cleric nor part of the academe, although I also cannot leave these two hats behind. I like to think that this piece simply comes from a non-journalist, sharing his thoughts to the professional practitioners of journalism.

The landscape of mainstream media is changing rapidly in large part because of social media. Like almost all things, this novel phenomenon has its upsides and downsides. On the former, social media connects people. It is now possible to talk to someone miles away, and free of charge. Indeed, most people believe they are better off with social media than with none.

It is fake news when it is used by political leaders to harass journalists and there is threat of greater harm. Media consumers need to think critically. And journalists can be more honest about their biases and not fail to apologize for their mistakes.

But on its downside, in its social media where people show their narcissism. People post on facebook some trashy materials and what should not be for public consumption. There seems to be an information overload because of social media. Furthermore, one inevitably compromises one’s privacy if one enters into social media.

Dramatizing discourse

On the political front, social media democratizes discourse. Before the advent of social media, Juan de la Cruz participates in political discourse mainly through the ballot. If Juan de la Cruz wants to be heard through media, he is to write a letter to the editor, and very few have the talent and the patience to do so. But today, anyone can make a post.

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1 min read →

Cebu Press Freedom Week CJJ13 How the Press Stands Media Issues

Expanded Sotto Law to benefit more media practitioners

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

September 26, 2019 4:43 am September 26, 2019

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The amendment to the Sotto Law, also known as Press Freedom Law, expanding the protection to journalists, has finally been approved. The law now covers not just print journalists but …

The amendment to the Sotto Law, also known as Press Freedom Law, expanding the protection to journalists, has finally been approved. The law now covers not just print journalists but also practitioners in broadcast, wire service and electronic media.

President Duterte signed Republic Act #1145 last Aug. 30 yet but it was released only Tuesday, Sept. 24. It amends Republic Act #53, the 73-year-old law enacted in 1946.

The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC), which has helped in the drafting of the House version of the bill (HB# 694), in an en banc meeting last Sept. 19, thanked Rep. Raul V. del Mar as main sponsor who had diligently filed and re-filed the bill in a number of Congresses before it was approved this year.

“The coverage is as wide as it can be, more than most of media expected,” said CCPC executive director Pachico A. Seares.

Under the Sotto Law, as amended, the journalist “cannot be compelled to reveal the source of any news item, report or information appearing or being reported or disseminated… which was related in confidence” to the said journalist. Only the court or the House of Representatives or the Senate or any committee of Congress can compel disclosure if it finds that “such revelation is demanded the security of the State.”

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Fake News How the Press Stands Media Issues

STATEMENT

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

July 27, 2019 2:20 pm July 27, 2019

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Cebu Citizens-Press Council Saturday, July 27, 2019 Senator Sotto’s bill doesn’t define ‘false content’ and grants arbitrary power of virtual censorship to government bureaucrats. The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) earnestly…

Cebu Citizens-Press Council
Saturday, July 27, 2019

Senator Sotto’s bill doesn’t
define ‘false content’ and grants
arbitrary power of virtual
censorship to government
bureaucrats.

The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) earnestly asks Senate President Vicente Sotto III to restudy his Senate Bill #9, filed last July 1, 2019, which seeks to prohibit “publication and proliferation of false content” in the internet.

What CCPC believes are the major defects of the bill:

[a] It defines “content” but not “false content,” which is what the Sotto bill seeks to prohibit.

CCPC found the same flaw in Sen. Joel Villanueva’s “fake news” bill, SB 1492 in the 17th Congress. Not specifically defining “false content” will open media — and the rest of the public using the internet — to orders from DOJ to rectify, take down or block access or even prosecution.

The absence of a definition that excludes errors of publication or lapses in editing – violations of journalism norm or standard , as distinguished from malicious falsehood – makes media vulnerable to harassment and persecution from those offended by the published material, mostly public officials.

[b] It vests huge power on the DOJ Office of Cybercrime, which can issue those rectify/take-down/block-access orders on complaint or “motu propio” without hearing the alleged offender. The DOJ cybercrime office can exercise its powers without due process; it alone determines “sufficient basis.”

And appeal is made only to the DOJ secretary, enabling one office in one department of the government virtual “censorship” functions. What may alarm is that the procedure allows instant judgment on falsehood with a bureaucrat’s decision promptly executed until it is reversed by a higher bureaucrat.

The intention is to shoot down false or fake news. The casualty could be free press and free speech instead.

Pachico A. Seares, Executive Director
Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC)

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9 min read →

Cebu Press Freedom Week CJJ13 Media Issues News

THE 2019 DILI DIALOGUE FORUM

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

May 11, 2019 6:57 am May 11, 2019

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CCPC attendance at Timor Leste meeting enables it to share, and compare, its experience on press councils with other media groups in the region By Karlon N. Rama AN INTERNATIONAL…

CCPC attendance at Timor Leste meeting enables it to share, and compare, its experience on press councils with other media groups in the region

Representatives from the press councils of Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand discuss media challenges in their countries. Other media groups were represented as well — the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen of Indonesia, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance based in Bangkok, Thailand (Kathryn Roja Raymundo, 5th from right), the Cambodian Center for Independent Media based in Phnom Penh, (Danny Caspe, 4th from right), the Philippine Press Institute (Ariel Sebellino, 3rd from right), and CCPC. The named participants are Filipinos. [Photo from Conselho de Imprensa de Timor-Leste]

By Karlon N. Rama

AN INTERNATIONAL organization has shown interest in the interlocking support mechanism that lies at the core of the Cebu Citizens-Press Council, with an official saying it offers approaches that may apply to nascent democracies, where a free and vibrant press is crucial.

Dr. Lim Ming Kouk noted on the sidelines of the three-day Dili Dialogue Forum (DDF), held in the capital of Timor Leste May 9 and 10, that the “right support from the various sectors of the communities media itself serves” will help address internal and external concerns affecting the press in the region.

Quick look: Timor Leste allows free use of its public space but is planning to regulate media. It will define “who can broadcast and what can be broadcast.” A government representative sits in that country’s press council. The chairman of East Timor Press Council hopes for “self-regulation” and a media literacy program integrated in the education system.

Dr. Lim serves as advisor for communication and information of the Unesco office in Jakarta that partnered with the Conselho de Imprensa de Timor-Leste (Press Council of East Timor) in hosting the DDF.
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9 min read →

In Memoriam Persons of Interest

In his 50s, FCE (1927-2019) showed peers what grit looked like

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

May 5, 2019 5:50 pm May 5, 2019

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For many years, alone with his editor while already in his 50s, and with one junior reporter when he was pushing 70, Fred C. Espinoza filled the pages of the…

For many years, alone with his editor while already in his 50s, and with one junior reporter when he was pushing 70, Fred C. Espinoza filled the pages of the business section with his somber pieces on investment climates, emerging markets, and business developments.

By Kevin A. Lagunda and Karlon N. Rama

AVID readers of Sun.Star’s business section from 1982 up to the year 2001 could not have missed Fred C. Espinoza’s bylines and articles. His name and stories came out day in and day out, like clockwork.

“You could rely on him because he was seldom absent from work and never ran out of stories. News sources used to call him and give him leads,” recalls Marites Villamor-Ilano editor of the paper’s business section from 1992 to 1997.

“He was the one who showed me around. He brought me to the Department of Trade and Industry, and introduced me to the chamber presidents,” adds Cherry Ann T. Lim, who took over the page until she became managing editor of the entire paper in 2005, four years after Pops had retired at 73. “At that time I took over, it was the height of the Asian Financial Crisis.”

Pops wrote 30 at a local hospital, Sunday, April 28, 2019, following confinement for a pulmonary-related ailment. He was laid to rest at the Queen City Memorial Gardens on May 5.
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CJJ13

Reinventing the newspaper

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

December 22, 2018 11:54 pm December 22, 2018

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A series of articles that CJJ hopes will set off a conversation among practitioners and students of journalism as well as media consumers on the crisis that afflicts print media,…

A series of articles that CJJ hopes will set off a conversation among practitioners and students of journalism as well as media consumers on the crisis that afflicts print media, specifically newspapers, more particularly, community newspapers.

Each article doesn’t try to tell the problem all at once, much less offer sure-fire solutions. Yet it tries to propel efforts of the industry’s leaders, many of whom have been working quietly to cope with changes in technology, which in turn revised habits of media consumers and reshaped the market.

Shifting to purely digital platform may be a “coerced” response that a newspaper outlet may be reluctant to make. Still it is an option, along with meeting the challenge to reinvent, for print to survive and even grow.

Here are the articles: Continue Reading

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CJJ13

What kind of content will work? A UP forum kicks the idea around

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

December 21, 2018 3:23 pm December 21, 2018

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What kind of content works? A panel of UP graduates kicks around ideas for print media It has been some time since observers within the industry and academia noticed that…

What kind of content works? A panel of UP graduates kicks around ideas for print media

It has been some time since observers within the industry and academia noticed that journalism is facing a crisis.

Solutions have been proposed. But will change in content, particularly in print media, work?

In September 2018, as the Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration was coming to a close, editor-turned university lecturer Jason Baguia sat down with a group of young University of the Philippines graduates from different parts of the country to discuss the matter. Continue Reading

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CJJ13

The impact of new media on newspaper circulation in selected countries

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

December 21, 2018 3:00 pm December 21, 2018

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By Tessa Aguilar In nine countries covered by a study, print media show how to beat the crisis High internet penetration, which makes it easy for the public to get…

By Tessa Aguilar

In nine countries covered by a study, print media show how to beat the crisis

High internet penetration, which makes it easy for the public to get their news from the web, won’t necessarily cause newspaper circulation to decline.

A common strategy: redesign story-telling based on preferences of readers

This is at least true in nine countries — Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa — which became the focus of a data-mining and cluster analysis study by a group of college students.

Newspapers here may need to “redesign story telling style based on the preference of the readers” though, said Tessa Frances Aguilar, Christine Dianne, Balansag, Marichu Canencia and Milva Villocero in their paper.

That and continue to raise its online advertising revenues. Continue Reading

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How the Press Stands

Stopping the police ‘perp walk’

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

June 17, 2018 8:42 pm June 17, 2018

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CEBU CITIZENS-PRESS COUNCIL STATEMENT June 17, 2018 The decision of PNP chief Oscar Albayalde to stop parading crime suspects puts back in place the order of then PNP chief Jesus Versoza in…

CEBU CITIZENS-PRESS COUNCIL STATEMENT
June 17, 2018

The decision of PNP chief Oscar Albayalde to stop parading crime suspects puts back in place the order of then PNP chief Jesus Versoza in 2007 that bans the Philippine equivalent of the U.S.-style “perp walk.” Continue Reading

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News

Museum’s media gallery inspires students

Cebu Journalism & Journalists

May 22, 2018 3:20 pm May 22, 2018

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(This article was first printed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sept. 15, 2012.) By Charisse Ursal of Inquirer Visayas CEBU CITY—A visit to a museum has convinced Jessa Parreño…

(This article was first printed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sept. 15, 2012.)

By Charisse Ursal of Inquirer Visayas

CEBU CITY—A visit to a museum has convinced Jessa Parreño to pursue a career in broadcast journalism once she completes a mass communication degree at the University of the Philippines College Cebu.

A sophomore, Parreño says she wants to see herself in the photos displayed on the wallboards at Cebu Journalism and Journalists (CJJ) Gallery inside Museo Sugbo, the biggest museum of the provincial government, on M.J. Cuenco Avenue in Cebu City. Continue Reading

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