THE COLLEGE Editors Guild of the Philippines on Friday urged the Commission on Higher Education to investigate cases of campus press violations committed under the Campus Journalism Act of 1991.

Represented by CEGP national deputy secretary-general Regina Tolentino, the group filed a complaint before CHED in celebration of the Campus Press Freedom Week.

“Student publications play a vital role in informing students about events and occurrences on campus, exposing wrongdoing, holding leaders accountable, and informing the larger community about relevant events,” Tolentino said.

“To perform these important services, publications should be autonomous and free from editorial interference or censorship by administrators,” she added.

The group emphasized that the intimidation of journalists “does not only apply to mainstream and alternative media.”

“Student publications are always the subject of campus press repression, especially in the form of school administration’s manipulation that was intensified by no less than the Duterte regime through the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act or the Free Higher Education Law,” Tolentino said.

Since 2010, CEGP said it has documented almost 1,000 campus press violations such as harassment and/or killings of student writers and editors, meddling with editorial policies, and censorship of editorial content.

“Among the recent campus press repression includes Alyansa dagiti Agkaykaysa nga Mannalon-Cagayan Valley red-tagging Ang Pahayagang Plaridel national section writer Kai Reyes after he was featured in a tarpaulin, together with the League of Filipino Students and Kabataan Partylist,” CEGP said.

The group vowed to continue defending press freedom in the country.

It also pressed the passage of House Bill 319 or the Campus Press Freedom Bill to ensure the rights and protection of campus journalists.

“In such trying times, the Guild challenges all student journalists across the country to hold their ideals high and fight alongside the masses. We owe the might of our pen to the people and from the people alone, no fascist regime can ever silence us, not during when the masses needed us most,” Tolentino said.