Deeming the Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991 “weak” due to lack of apt sanctions and protections against threats posed against student journalists, the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and the Kabataan Partylist (KPL) refiled the Campus Press Freedom Bill on August 28.
Represented by CEGP National Spokesperson Brell Lacerna and KPL representative Atty. Renee Co, the bill was submitted to the House of Representatives on Thursday following a prior online consultation with student journalists across the country on August 25.
Designated as House Bill (HB) 4172, the refiled bill aims to address Republic Act 7079’s supposed insufficiencies that had “jeopardized the campus press instead of protecting their rights as students and an independent working press.”
Cited weaknesses concerning CJA include the lack of mandatory provisions for the collection of publication funds, lack of the mandatory establishment of student publications in education institutions, lack of penalty clauses, and the lack of protection and freedom for student journalists in terms of security of tenure.
For the latter, it can be recalled that a Supreme Court (SC) ruling in 2000 declared Section 7 of the CJA to mean that, “the school cannot suspend or expel a student solely on the basis of the articles he or she has written, except when such articles materially disrupt class work or involve substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others.”
Aiming to replace the CJA, key provisions in the new Campus Press Freedom bill mandate the formation of student publications in all schools, the automatic collection and transmission of publication funds, and the autonomy of student publications from any form of administrative intervention.
Per HB 4172’s Section 13 and 14, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Department of Education (DepEd) shall investigate and impose administrative sanctions to campus press freedom violations (CPFV).
These include the “interrogation and intimidation of editors and staff members and other forms of harassment; meddling of school administrators with editorial policies; actual censorship of editorial content; withholding and non-collection of publication fees,” among others.
Penalty clauses have also been added — with “a fine of not less than P100,00 but not more than P200,000 or imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than five (5) years, or both at the discretion of the court or both upon conviction.” Should the offender be an educational institution or a juridical person, the penalty is to be imposed upon “the president, treasurer or secretary or any officer responsible for the violation.”
According to the submitted bill, over 1000 campus press freedom violations (CPFV) have been recorded by CEGP from 2010–2025, with 206 from 2023–2024 alone.
Per CEGP’s research, nationwide systemic assaults against student journalists include harassment, administrational meddling of student writers, editors, and public operations, censorship of editorial content, eviction and non-provision of publications offices, suspension, expulsion, filing of libel charges against publication members, and more.
Similar accounts have been raised in the August 25 consultation meeting, with multiple publications reporting cases of administrational interference with student publications.
“Violations of campus press freedom have long gone unpunished, as they are often deemed inconsequential by school administrators and the government alike. Efforts to impose weak protective measures to address these violations fall short of meeting the genuine demands of the press,” stated CEGP in an August 28 press release following the filing of the Campus Press Freedom Bill.
“Instead, dysfunctional bureaucratic procedures and anti-student policies have become the default responses used to preserve institutional control amidst the ongoing education crisis,” the alliance emphasized.
The first attempt at repealing the CJA was in 2011 by KPL Rep. Raymond V. Palatino and Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Teddy A. Casiño, followed by KPL Rep. Raoul Manuel’s HB 1155 in 2022 and former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s Senate Bill (SB) No. 1464 in 2022.
All versions, however, have been shelved by their respective Congresses.
