UNITY STATEMENT OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS CONDEMNING ATTACKS AGAINST TODAY’S CAROLINIAN, THE SPARK, AND TANGLAW PUBLICATIONS
FEBRUARY 24, 2025
End All Forms of Campus Press Repression Now in the Time of Elections!
Empower Student Publications and the Fight for Press Freedom!
Assert People’s Demands for Genuine Change.
The country has just entered the first quarter of the year, yet several attacks against student publications have already been documented in the region. Moreover, the perpetrators remain unyielding to student journalists’ demands as of this writing.
On January 15, 2025, Cebu-based Today’s Carolinian, from the University of San Carlos (USC), got evicted from their publication space, which was repurposed into the alumni office. University officials “saw no violations” in the process, which displaced staff and editors who have operated from donations since 2019, as the USC earlier clamped down its funds.
Almost a month after, on February 7, Camarines Sur Polytechnic College (CSPC)’s The Spark released a mock election survey, with landslide gubernatorial section results that favored challenger Bong Rodriguez over political scion LRay Villafuerte. Enraged over the poll tally, Villafuerte went on a series of defensive blurbs, which attacked the publication and questioned its credibility. He also harassed one of its senior editors.
Tanglaw, the student publication of the Santa Rosa campus of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUPSR) also faces an uphill battle as the PUPSR admin claims “copyrighted ownership” of the paper’s name itself. This hindered operations and reportage since 2024, as staff and editors were forcibly blocked from discharging their duties while officials raised their cases but have not provided legitimate and legal documentation to support their claims.
Beforehand, all three publications faced censorship, administrative intervention, and harassment while they continued critical and student-centered reportage in and out of their campuses. From July 2023 to June 2024, the CEGP has documented 206 campus press freedom violations (CPFVs), adding to over 1000 cases since 2010. These are not isolated cases, but rather a systemic crackdown against the campus press and eventually, press freedom itself.
Henceforth, the Guild reiterates its stand: end all forms of repression, assert our freedom of expression, and uphold a Filipino-centered free press. This is more than ever crucial, as student journalists are election watchdogs who protect the people’s vote amid the 2025 Midterm Elections.
CPFVs must never occur inside our schools and communities, where critical thinking and meaningful discourse must be fostered to actualize genuine change. As press freedom is a democratic right, we remain firmly committed to combat election fraud, disinformation, and corruption to uphold clean, honest, fair, and peaceful elections.
As we persist amid an elusive justice system, the Guild earnestly enjoins all student journalists, press freedom advocates, and the Filipino people take a stand against attacks from all fronts. Perpetrators must be held to account with our collective call for accountability, and attacks must end in the pursuit of genuine change with a Filipino-centered press in the lead.
#DefendPressFreedom
#DefendTheCampusPress
#ProtectTheSpark
#StandWithTodaysCarolinian
#IbalikAngTanglaw
