By PATRICIA ISABEL GLORIA
PHILIPPINE Press Institute (PPI) chairman Jesus Dureza urged journalists in different parts of the country to create local press councils as a bridge between the media and the citizenry.
Speaking before the 18th National Press Forum held in Traders Hotel in Manila on Thursday, Dureza said press councils could handle complaints against the media, such as grievances about accuracy or the right of reply, removing the need to file cases against the press.
Dureza said that the PPI is planning to start by forming 10 new local press councils in three cities in Luzon, three in Mindanao and four in the Visayas. He added that the PPI is planning to seek funding from corporate partners for the proposed P200,000 budget each council will need.
PPI executive director Ariel Sebellino said funding will not be given lump sum, but only as seed capital in small amounts. The local press council has to prove that they are a functioning council before the PPI releases the rest of the funding.
The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) is the only local press council in the country. CCPC deputy director Cherry Ann Lim said the CCPC survived because of the willingness of media leaders to band together and face common problems despite different personalities and competing corporate interests.
“We (still) compete, especially at awards, but we collaborate when we have common issues and interests,” she said.
The CCPC is composed of only 15 members, five of whom are the editors-in-chief of Cebu’s daily newspapers. Radio and television stations have one representative each, as elected by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP).
Two CCPC representatives hail from the academe or are former media practitioners, and six are chosen http://editionstnt.com/ from the public.
Lim said that the quarterly CCPC meetings always meet their quorum, since they employ a system of voluntary associate members who serve as substitutes if a member cannot attend.
“Since September 21, 2005, we have had 34 en banc meetings up to last April 10,” she added.
In terms of funding, CCPC received P30,000 from the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) when it was starting out in 2002, and an annual membership fee of P3,000 from the five dailies and the KBP.
“Kulang ng information not only sa public, pati ang press members, hindi aware na pwede pala nilang gawin yung mechanism na yan (Lack of information not only in the public, but also the press members are not aware that they can create this mechanism),” he said.
CMFR also introduced the idea of a press council in Central Luzon in 2009. It gathered media practitioners from all the provinces in Central Luzon for a regional press council. “It’s very hard to organize a regional press council dahil sa napakalaking (because of the large)coverage area,” said Dino Balabo, reporter of Mabuhay newspaper in Bulacan.
PPI Luzon Trustee May Anne Cacdac, who is also the vice president of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC), sees the significance of a citizens’ press club but asked if the locals are really capable of running a press council.
The BCBC is a social club and not an official local press council, but is also interested in the welfare of Baguio City journalists, and functions like the CCPC.
“We don’t have a citizens’ press council in Baguio. It didn’t take off because hindi alam ng tao kung ano ba talaga ang citizens’ press council (the people did not know what a citizens’ press council is), and I think the media also did not know on how to go about it. I think, there’s a need for us to sit down and discuss all these things,” Cacdac said.
Mindanao Times editor-in-chief Amalia Cabusao, on the other hand, does not see the need to create local press councils in Mindanao. “We can easily just call each other,” she said.
Mindanao newspapers organize an annual media summit, which is attended by newspaper editors and publishers. The Mindanao Media Summit started in 2002 and tackles the “burning issues of the day.”
(The author is a University of the Philippines student writing for VERA Files as part of her internship.)