Young Filipino scribes push back against campus repression, disinformation

AT 22, Troy Ortega almost had it all when it comes to facing hardship as a Filipino student journalist.

“It was never easy,” said Ortega, shortly after An Lantawan, the official campus publication of Leyte Normal University in Tacloban City, bagged the “Campus Press of the Year” for main campuses of state universities and colleges in Eastern Visayas and the “Ben Domingo Jr. Award of Campus Press Freedom” on Sunday, April 7, 2024.

Ortega recalled that prior to his appointment as publication editor-in-chief, An Lantawan faced attacks against press freedom through the filing of a cyberlibel case by a university student leader against their former editor-in-chief Gio Costuna on July 17, 2023.

The publication also faced shutdown allegedly due to non-accreditation in October 2023.

An Lantawan has been serving an estimated 7,000 students at the university, which was established in 1921.

“We struggled hard but it was all worth it… However, winning these awards is not only for An Lantawan, but also for all of the student publications who up to this day, continue to fight against repression,” said Ortega, a fourth-year political science student.

“It is also a testament to how student publications, various organizations, and people from all walks of life in Eastern Visayas stood in solidarity for us, rallying to our side during the darkest times of our publication,” Ortega added.

Ortega, along with some 400 other campus journalists from 28 campus publications in the region, joined in this year’s return of the Eastern Visayas Regional Tertiary Schools Press Conference (RTSPC) at the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, some three hours away from Tacloban.

The event was the biggest regional gathering of campus writers, editors, journalism educators, communications experts, and national and international journalists who served as resource speakers.

Dr. Uldarico Alviola, head of VSU Development Communication department and the interim president of Regional Tertiary Press Advisers Association, said that the “very role of campus journalists is vital in encouraging critical and creative thinking” in the respective colleges and universities of the student journalists.

“You are the agents of change in your very own communities as you perform an essential function of influencing public opinion hoping that along the way, you also get to teach your fellow students the ability to evaluate and prioritize information, discern fact from opinion, and weigh the credibility of facts that are presented to them,” said Uldarico during the campus journalism gathering.

“Let’s continue to harness the potential of campus press as a form to counter speech against misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information,” he added.

A survey from Social Weather Stations in December 2021 alone showed that 51 percent or the majority of Filipinos had difficulty spotting fake news on social media, television, and radio.

Beyond laurels

“Journalism is beyond medals and laurels. May this year’s RTSPC encourage young journalists to explore and share stories that matter in the community,” said Ortega after receiving the journalism awards.

“I hope that this victory of ours will tell the administration of Leyte Normal University to give An Lantawan the recognition it deserves. I hope that through this year’s RTSPC, schools across Eastern Visayas will start treating their publications better,” he added.

International award-winning journalist Jeff Canoy, the ABS-CBN Integrated News chief of reporters, urged the young journalists to keep telling the stories of their communities.

“You don’t stop being a journalist. When something happens in front of you, you want to tell the story, and you want to tell it right,” said Canoy, who also encountered attacks against press freedom firsthand when their giant media network was shut down by the Philippine government on May 5, 2020, during the watch of the firebrand then-president Rodrigo Duterte.

“We’re not sure where we’re going, but we have to boldly go, we have to keep on going,” added Canoy, who served as the keynote speaker during the event.

Another award-winning Filipino investigative journalist, Jamela Alindogan, called on campus writers to start looking at their journalistic crafts as “real, timely, and professional journalism.”

“You are not just students practicing one day to become journalists. You are already journalists,” said Alindogan, who covered stories for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network.

She urged the campus scribes to cover stories outside the school premises.

“Make it simple, make it local, make it heartfelt. On the backhand of it, develop a high standard for it, try to learn from the best, demand good training and mentorship; learn also to negotiate with the administration. Be pushy, be courageous, and don’t be afraid to break barriers,” Alindogan said during her investigative writing workshop for the campus writers.

Meanwhile, Ortega said that he is “thankful that after five years of hiatus in conducting the RTSPC, the campus journalists stand together against repression of university administrations.”

“We can show our solidarity and help each other now more than ever,” Ortega told SunStar Philippines on April 9.

In the 2023 Global Impunity Index, the Philippines still found itself on the list of worst countries for journalists, with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) saying that for 16 consecutive years, perpetrators of journalist killings go unpunished in the country. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)