Student publications denouncing incessant tuition and other fee increases (TFI) face “systematic” repression by school administrations in an attempt to both stifle press freedom and silence dissenters, according to College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP).

Assaults on campus press freedom (CPF) have intensified this year as a number of critical student publications ceased operations before or after their administrations have approved TFI, said Jose Cosido, national president of CEGP, an alliance of around 750 student publications nationwide.

Cosido disclosed that 90 percent of the student papers which experienced CPF violations this year suffered repression for publishing reports criticizing TFI and other commercialization schemes rampant in state universities and colleges.

During the crucial period of the administration’s campaign for tuition hikes, the most common violations were withholding or non-mandatory collection of funds, meddling by advisers, censorship, harassment and threats, said Vijae Alquisola, CEPG national deputy secretary-general.

Recent cases include The Tandem of the University of the Northern Philippines, EARIST Technozette of Eulogio Amang Rodriquez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST), The Work of Tarlac State University, The Warden of Ang Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa and The TUP Artisan of the Technological University of the Philippines.

Editors and staff of The Tandem and EARIST Technozette, for instance, were barred from entering their school premises as a form of harassment, while their administrations approved the appointment of advisers without prior consultation. Non-mandatory collection of funds also affected the regular release of both publications.

Annaliza Tolentino, chairperson of CEGP-National Capital Region and news editor of EARIST Technozette, claimed that when publications are forcibly put to a halt, school administrations then use a “divide and rule” tactic to prevent the publication’s operation and to suppress its autonomy.

Cosido said that the loopholes in the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (CJA), including the non-mandatory collection of funds, were used by school administrations to put a “legal and sophisticated” reason to prevent the publication’s operations and to suppress its autonomy.

Alquisola lamented that school administrations are not charged for violating press freedom as the CJA lacks penalty clauses to compel them to respect the independence of student publications. The CEGP has been calling to scrap the CJA for failing to defend student journalists against repression, Alquisola said.

Aside from CJA, Alquisola added that most student papers were also subjected to university rules which prevent student journalists to report on matters that would supposedly destroy the reputation of the university and its faculty.

“Kapag may violations sa (CPF), the right of the students to information is under attack as well,” said Cosido.

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# Philippine Collegian