Cebu Citizens Press Council

Cherry Ann T. Lim, assistant executive director of the Cebu Citizens-Press Council, wrote this piece for the October 2009 issue of the Press Forum.

CCPC gains headway to help journalists
By Cherry Ann T. Lim

AFTER members of the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) spoke at the consultation of citizens-press councils in Manila last Oct. 26, 2008, journalists from other parts of the country expressed fears that forming a similar body in their own localities would mean just shooting themselves in the foot.
Why, they asked, give the public a rope with which to hang media?

First, let’s make one thing clear: Cebuanos are not suicidal.

Second, although the CCPC indeed provides a forum for news subjects to air their grievances, the whole idea of providing an added means of redress is to reduce the incidence of lawsuits and violence against journalists.

Third, the CCPC does not attempt to solve all the problems of the industry. It entertains two types of complaints only, those relating to (1) the right to reply and (2) the accuracy of the material printed or broadcast. These are basic journalism precepts anyway.

Fourth, far from hanging media, the council advances its interests, primarily by providing a forum in which to discuss issues affecting media practitioners. For instance, the council has helped shape public opinion and policy on bills now pending in Congress to decriminalize libel and to compel the right to reply.

Waking from sleep

The idea for the Cebu Citizens-Press Council began in 2001 when three Cebu journalists—Eileen Mangubat of the Cebu Daily News, Noel Pangilinan of The Freeman and Pachico Seares of Sun.Star Cebu—spoke in Manila with Marvin Tort, then executive director of the Philippine Press Council, about setting up a local press council. Veteran journalist Juan Mercado helped lay the groundwork for the organization.

There were consultations with potential members as well as with Melinda Quintos-de Jesus of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, which wanted to help set up press councils in Cebu, Palawan and Baguio.

A year later, Seares presented to the prospective members the proposed Code of Practice and Rules of Procedure of CCPC, adopted from foreign models and from consultations with other convenors and based on the local experience. Then the project went to sleep—for three years.

In 2005, Seares volunteered for Sun.Star Cebu to lead the revival of the CCPC. The council has been meeting quarterly ever since.

No club

What sets the council apart from other media councils is that it is not composed entirely of media members. It is not an old boys’ club.

Of its 15 members, less than half—or only seven—of its members are from the media. These are the editors-in-chief of the five daily newspapers in Cebu and two representatives from the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas-Cebu. Two members are from the academe, while six are from the general public.

Except for Seares, who is the executive director, none of the council’s officers is a journalist.

The CCPC’s president is a doctor. The vice president is a business leader and honorary consul of Denmark and Norway. It was on his suggestion that the council registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit organization in 2006. The council’s secretary is a lawyer and university dean, while the treasurer is a priest.

Eye on the bill

From its early years, the CCPC (www.cebucitizenspresscouncil.org) has lobbied for measures to help journalists not just in Cebu but elsewhere in the country.

In 2006, it recommended and helped draft two bills, one seeking to include broadcast and Internet journalists under the protection of the Sotto Law, the other seeking to limit the venue of libel cases against community newspapers to their principal office of business.

The Sotto Law allows journalists not to disclose their source of information unless demanded by the security of the state.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives approved the two bills.

Through position papers and resolutions drafted with the help of the Cebu Media Legal Aid (Cemla), the council has also made known to Congress its opposition to the bill compelling the right to reply and its support for certain provisions of the bill decriminalizing libel.

Cemla is a group of volunteer lawyers whose eventual goal is to help defend journalists against cases of libel, contempt and similar complaints arising from the exercise of journalism.

Through Rep. Raul del Mar, the CCPC has proposed amendments to the right to reply bill now undergoing plenary debates in the House.

Last year, the CCPC began work to improve journalists’ access to information. It held discussions with news sources from the prosecutors’ offices, the courts, police and local governments. It also produced the documentary “Access Denied: Journalists’ Lament, News Sources’ Plea” detailing the frustrations of journalists in getting information, as well as the concerns raised by news sources against journalists seeking to get information from them.

Raising standards

Fighting for the rights of the press, however, also requires an acknowledgement that some of the complaints of news sources against media are legitimate. This is why another major task of the CCPC is to set professional standards for the media industry in cooperation with stakeholders.

In 2006, the CCPC adopted standards for local media coverage to protect the human rights of suspects and detainees. Parading of suspects with placards and wearing uniforms marked “Prisoner” is now banned.

The following year, standards were adopted toward more responsible
reporting on religion and erring religious officials. The documentary “Covering Priests—Clearing the Air, Bridging the Gap,” featuring interviews with Church officials and the media, was also produced to help improve understanding of Church and media structures so that there may be a better flow of information between the two institutions.

Following an academe-led analysis of local media’s coverage of the 2007 elections, the council invited politicians and representatives from the Commission on Elections, the police and election watchdogs last June to the first in a series of CCPC-stakeholder consultations to improve media coverage of the 2010 elections.

Tasting success

Why has the CCPC largely succeeded while press councils in other parts of the country reportedly struggle?

The secret lies in its modest goals, simple structure, greater representation of public than media members, and the solidarity among Cebu journalists that enables them to achieve common goals.

It is this same solidarity that enables Cebu media to work together to organize the annual Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration in September, and to benefit from joint projects like the Cebu Media Medical Aid Fund and the Cebu News Workers Foundation.

More than anything else, the CCPC has helped the public better understand how the media operates. Policing its own ranks is but a small part of the council’s work.

Journalists who practice the profession ethically have nothing to fear from a citizens-press council.

Cherry Ann T. Lim is managing editor for special pages and features of Sun.Star Cebu. In the Cebu Citizens-Press Council, she is assistant to the executive director, Pachico A. Seares. Press Forum is a publication of the Philippine Press Institute.