Editor's Commitment to the People's Right to Know

EDITOR’S COMMITMENT TO THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO KNOW (1988)

WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES in our capacity as editors of print and broadcast facilities to reaffirm our advocacy of the universal human right to freedom of the press. It is a freedom that encompasses the people’s right to inform and to be informed, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

WE FULLY SUBSCRIBE to the third and fourth paragraphs of the 1987 Philippine Declaration for Press Freedom, which state that this freedom is “the people’s right to unhampered reportage and to channels of information and opinion…” and that this freedom “is more than the right to express approval of prevailing political structures and dominant political beliefs and policies, for the right belongs as well, if not more, to those who question, who differ, who oppose.”

UPHOLDING THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE is both a crucial requisite to the building of a working democracy as well as a deterrent to the restoration of authoritarian rule. We therefore commit ourselves, individually and collectively, to give adequate space, time and prominence to matters of urgent public concern such as: (a) persisting or even officially-tolerated health and environmental hazards; (b) economic conditions and policies relevant to the broad populace; (c) official policies and acts of commission or omission by government that adversely affect substantial segments of the citizenry; and (d) responses to these matters from private citizens or group of citizens.

WE RESOLVE TO DO SO and consider it our contribution to human rights advocacy in this part of the world, for the sake of the Filipino people whose interests we seek to cherish and to serve.

This text was penned in December 1987 by the now deceased Alfredo Navarro Salanga, first chairman of the PMPF Task Force for the People’s Right to Know, and signed by the 71 editors of eight dailies and six other publications in Metro Manila. It was formally presented at the PMPF-sponsored Round Table Conference on the Media and the People’s Right to Know held on August 6, 1988 as one of pre-conferences that culminated at the Second National Convention for Press Freedom held at the end of that month. The commitment was signed by senior and junior editors of Ang Pilipino Ngayon, Balita, Bulletin, Chronicle, Inquirer, Malaya, Manila Standard, and Manila Times, as well as those of Philippine Agenda, Dispatch, Philippine News & Features, Filipino Journalist, We Forum / Masa, and Press Freedom Advocate. It is both an individual commitment and a collective commitment, the latter providing the basis for the formation of an organization of editors along the lines of this advocacy.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 172-173

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.