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The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is a private, non-stock, non-profit foundation in the Philippines that has focused its endeavor on press freedom protection along with the establishment of a framework of responsibility for its practice. Its programs represent efforts to protect the press as well as to promote professional and ethical values in journalistic practice.
The formation of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) addresses one of the critical concerns confronting the Philippines after People Power toppled the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. That concern called attention to the power of the media and the role of the free press in the development of Philippine democracy.
All over the world, press freedom has been found to be essential to the democratic system. Effective participatory government is possible only when it can count on a well-informed society where individuals freely exchange ideas, and public debate and discussion arise from knowledge and understanding of national affairs.
That freedom involves not only media professionals, but also the public served by the media—public officials, the private sector, civil society groups, readers, viewers, and listeners—who receive information and are a part of the cycle of public communication. But freedom of the press, like all liberties, has its limits, for the simplest reason that it is vulnerable to abuse.
Democratic recovery confronts serious obstacles on the media front. The press and the media need to exert special efforts to measure up a collective vehicle of information, and as an instrument for clarifying complex issues and dilemmas of development that the public should understand.
Against this background, CMFR was organized in 1989 as a private, non-stock, non-profit organization involving the different sectors of society in the task of building up the press and news media as a pillar of democratic society. Its programs uphold press freedom, promote responsible journalism, and encourage journalistic excellence.
With content analysis, CMFR evaluates media coverage of major issues and events, such as elections and corruption. Based on its findings, CMFR has recommended measures to improve media performance.
In addition to special projects based on content analysis, PJR Reports includes case studies of media performance.
The Philippine Journalism Review (PJR), which was previously in magazine form, was revived in 2007 as a refereed journal for students and professors of journalism. PJR Reports is its monthly sister publication addressed to journalism professionals.
PJR Reports is not just a publication; it is the result of a continuing monitoring activity of how the press covers and reports events and issues. PJR Reports meets the need for the continuing education of journalists. Sent to over 500 journalists nationwide, PJR Reports also serves as a regular forum for the discussion of the issues and problems of the news media in the Philippines. PJR Reports serves as a reference for journalism faculty and students in universities and colleges.
PJR Reports was first released as a quarterly and then as a bimonthly journal. It is now released monthly to make the material more accessible to the public.
CMFR holds the Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism (JVOAEJ) yearly to promote the practice of investigative journalism and explanatory reporting. These involve basic building blocks for any kind of reporting: research, inquiry, and corroboration to ensure the validity of one's findings. CMFR serves as the technical and administrative secretariat of the awards.
In 1995, the program initiated the first Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar on Investigative Journalism in order to broaden public interest and support for the development of investigative journalism. The seminar, now known as the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar, invites journalism students and faculty from different schools to interact with a panel of finalists who discuss their articles and views on journalism. [2]
CMFR monitors attacks against and threats to press freedom in the Philippines. It maintains a database of journalists killed in the line of duty and trains a national network of journalists to report on assaults against the press. Correspondents provide updates on unsolved cases of journalists killed and issue calls for action when necessary. CMFR serves as a clearing house for information to international groups.
CMFR forwards alerts and reports on the state of press freedom in the Philippines to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A yearly publication that reports on the state of the press and the issues affecting media in Asia. Contributors are media practitioners from the region who gather for a conference (the Journalism Asia Forum) to discuss selected issues that will be taken up in the magazine.
CMFR also publishes reports and books on major topics of media interest and performance such as media and gender issues and media and governance.
CMFR has developed training modules in the following areas:
CMFR has been working with partners in the press, academe, and non-governmental organizations to plan, build, and launch local press councils since 2001. To date, it has helped establish the Cebu Citizens-Press Council and regional press councils in Baguio and Palawan.
CMFR is a founding member of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and currently serves as its secretariat. [4] It is also a founding member of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and an International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) member.
CMFR is a recipient of the Catholic Mass Media Award for Public Service in 1993 and the Joaquin "Chino" Roces Award in 1998. In 2005, CMFR won second prize in the ethics and values category of the Templeton Freedom Awards of the United States-based Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
On January 28, 2008, 30 journalists filed a P10-million media class suit (by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), and Philippine Press Institute (PPI). Executive Judge Winlove Dumayas of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 59 granted the petition for a temporary restraining order, effective for 72 hours. [6]
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation, the methods of gathering information, and the organizing literary styles.
Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and good practice applicable to journalists. This subset of media ethics is known as journalism's professional "code of ethics" and the "canons of journalism". The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements by professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations.
Media ethics is the subdivision dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton ad campaigns.
Sheila S. Coronel is a Philippines-born investigative journalist and journalism professor. She is one of the founders of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). In 2006, she was named the inaugural director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. In 2014, she was appointed the School's Academic Dean, a position she held until the end of 2020.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is the only regional organization focused on promoting and protecting press freedom and freedom of expression in Southeast Asia. Established as a non-profit organization in November 1998, the alliance works to unite independent journalists and press-related organizations in the region into a force for free expression advocacy and mutual protection.
Pinoy Weekly is published by PinoyMedia Center. Inc., a non-government organization devoted to democratizing the practice of journalism in the country, and focuses on investigative stories that concern what it terms as the "underreported" sectors of Philippine society: peasants, workers, overseas Filipinos, youth, indigenous peoples, and women. It is currently a weekly print and online newsmagazine, and previously published special print issues, a Mindanao edition, international editions in Israel, Taiwan, and Japan.
Newsbreak is an online news and current affairs magazine published in New York City and Philippines. It began as a weekly print magazine that was published from January 24, 2001, to 2006. The Newsbreak website, launched in 2006, now functions as the investigative and research arm of online news organization Rappler.
Mass media in the Philippines consists of several types of media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and websites.
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is a non-profit media organization specializing in investigative journalism. It is based in Quezon City, Philippines. Established in 1989 by nine Filipino journalists, the organization funds investigative projects for both the print and broadcast media.
Patricia Chanco Evangelista is a Filipina journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Manila, whose coverage focuses mostly on conflict, disaster and human rights. She is a multimedia reporter for online news agency Rappler and is a writer-at-large for Esquire magazine. Her first book, Some People Need Killing, came out in 2023.
The code of ethics in media was created by a suggestion from the 1947 Hutchins Commission. They suggested that newspapers, broadcasters and journalists had started to become more responsible for journalism and thought they should be held accountable.
Rappler is a Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa along with a group of fellow Filipino journalists as well as technopreneurs. It started as a Facebook page named MovePH in August 2011 and evolved into a website on January 1, 2012.
Philip Agustin, publisher and editor for the local newspaper, Starline Times Recorder, in Dingalan, Philippines.
Vera Files is a non-profit online news organization in the Philippines, known for its institutionalized role in fact-checking false information in the Philippines, and as one of the news organizations most prominently targeted by intimidation and censorship due to its critical coverage of the Philippine government. It is part of the International Fact-Checking Network of the Poynter Institute and is one of Facebook's two Philippine partners in its third-party fact-checking program.
Lourdes "Chit" Panganiban Estella-Simbulan was a Filipino journalist and professor, known for her critical writings on government repression, abuse, corruption and human rights violations.
Maria Ceres P. Doyo is a Filipino journalist, author, human rights activist, and feminist best known as a columnist and staff writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, for her numerous books on Philippine journalism, and for the historical impact of her investigative reports during the martial law under Ferdinand Marcos.
Anna Karmina Balderrama Constantino-Torres, known professionally as Karmina Constantino, is a Filipina television broadcast journalist who anchors Dateline Philippines on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) during weekdays. Formerly she was a co-host of Breakfast on Studio 23 and a temporary replacement for the co-hosting chair in Mornings @ ANC. Constantino and fellow news anchor Tony Velasquez were the interviewers who represented ABS-CBN in PiliPinas Forum 2022, the multi-network interview series produced in partnership with the Philippine Commission on Elections that covered the candidates of the 2022 Philippine presidential election. Velasquez and Constantino are also co-hosting partners in DWPM Radyo 630 and TeleRadyo Serbisyo's Isyu Spotted, formerly branded as DZMM TeleRadyo's On the Spot.
Bulatlat is a Philippine independent online alternative news outlet. It was established in 2001. It is owned by the Alipato Media Center, Inc. Bulatlat was the recipient of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility Award of Distinction in 2022.
Christian Esguerra is a Filipino political journalist and educator. He currently hosts Facts First, a political podcast streaming live three times a week, where he tackles current issues in politics and governance. A persistent critic of disinformation activities, Esguerra was the former anchor and managing editor of the political talk program After the Fact on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), launched in May 2020. He started his career in journalism as a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2000, and joined ABS-CBN in 2015 as a news correspondent and anchor.
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