By: Andrea Eleanor Cabaron, Thea Divina
The CEGP condemns the red-tagging of the official campus press of the Leyte Normal University (LNU), An Lantawan. Photo courtesy of The POST.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) released a press statement via Facebook post condemning the strongest terms in attacks against An Lantawan, the official student publication of Leyte Normal University (LNU).
“We call upon the Commission on Higher Education to investigate this brazen violation against campus press freedom. No interest other than that of the students and the LNU community must be protected at all costs,” read part of the CEGP statement.
An Lantawan, the campus newspaper of LNU, pressed on the university administrators for allegedly forcing their organization to have an accreditation process which contradicts the publication’s autonomous operations as implied in their university’s manual.
The student newspaper received criticism for publishing critical articles and political viewpoints, and its contributors were demoted from their positions as a result.
Members of An Lantawan were interviewed by media network Rappler, wherein they stated that they were told to refrain from posting articles that are “critical” and to not publish news updates using the An Lantawan name and logo.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) of Eastern Visayas and other student publications including UP Vista, The Pillar, and Amaranth have made messages of support for An Lantawan.
“We call on the Leyte Normal University Administration to keep its hands off An Lantawan,” UP Vista called out.
In a statement published on the university's official Facebook page on Wednesday night, Generoso Mazo, the vice president for student development, refuted claims that they were restricting press freedom.
"The University has a responsibility in establishing certain guidelines and standards to ensure quality and integrity of our academic and extracurricular programs," stated Mazo.
He claimed that the accreditation process was "a standard procedure" that all student publications, including An Lantawan, went through.
“An Lantawan's accreditation requirements are not an effort to restrict press or speech freedom,” Mazo continued.
In response to the issue, Maximo Aljibe, Regional Director of CHED Eastern Visayas, declared on October 25 that their agency had contacted LNU in regards to the problems involving An Lantawan.
According to the regional CHED offices' protocols, an inquiry won't start until an institution has provided a statement or report on the problems it's facing.
The CEGP further stated their firm position on the issue by expressing their side with An Lantawan saying, "The alliance opposes any attacks on the independent and unified campus press more than ever. We are all An Lantawan; an attack on one of us affects all of us.”
According to the CEGP data in 2021, it has by then recorded approximately 1,000 campus press violations including harassment and/or killings of student writers and editors, meddling with editorial policies, and censorship of editorial content since 2010.
Relatively, since 1996, CEGP has been constantly pursuing the repeal of the Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991 through House Bill 319, or the Campus Press Freedom (CPF) Act.
The bill intends to penalize campus freedom offenders by due fines (P100,000 to P200,000) and/or imprisonment (one to five years).
The most recent reports by the Rappler states as of 2021 the campus press freedom bill is still pending with the House committee on higher and technical education.