Pooled editorials: CCPC resolutions, statements, standards
Cebu media speaking as one
Pooled editorials: CCPC resolutions, statements, standards
BY PACHICO A. SEARES
July 15, 2017
WAS there ever a Cebu Press Freedom Week (CPFW) celebration without the pooled editorial?
The pooled editorial is as essential and basic a feature of the annual observance by Cebu’s print and broadcast media as the parade. On its first two days: Sunday, the journalists’ street march and Monday, the pooled editorial in newspapers and public-affairs radio on Monday.
What makes it distinct is that it’s the closest to what can be called collective voice of Cebu media. On Press Freedom Week, that voice is routinely raised but at any other time, when solidarity is demanded by any crisis involving free press and free speech, Cebu media can and it will speak out as one, despite industry competition and individual differences of opinion.
Some quick facts about the pooled editorial:
[ ] In the first four celebrations (1988, 1994, 1995, 1997), when they were initiated by the Cebu Council of Media Leaders (CCL), I had to do the writing. The rotation started when the papers took turns as lead organizers (Freeman, 1999; CDN, 2000; Sun.Star, 2001 and so on until 2011, when Freeman begged off and CPFW board of trustees took over and has since assumed Freeman’s slot in managing the festivity). The paper lead organizer assigns the writing, usually to one of its journalists. The other editorial writers included Juan L. Mercado (a frequent contributor), Mayette Tabada, Isolde Amante, Eileen Mangubat, Bong Wenceslao, Noel Pangilinan and Jerry Tundag.
[ ] CPFW doesn’t specify a theme for each year as the theme is a continuing issue: press freedom and responsibility. And the editorial writer’s latitude in picking the topic is as wide as the concerns that flow from the fixed theme. Inevitably though, the staple subjects include threats to press freedom, from outside and from within; protecting it; and freedom and responsibility. State of media is often examined. In the list, there are two editorials similarly titled “Media at a crossroad” (2008 and 2012). Other areas of self-scrutiny: “The press at the edges”; “Media at the outer limit”; “Cisterns of journalism.”
[ ] The pooled editorial is translated into Cebuano-Bisaya for the two native-language newspapers, Superbalita and Banat, and radio news stations. It’s condensed to fit tabloid space and limited broadcast time.
Notably, the first pooled editorial, in 1988, dealt with economics and how it affects journalists’ job and conduct. Its peg was then Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s appeal to publishers and broadcast station owners to upgrade the salaries of their journalists. Coming from a non-journalist, the editorial said, the advice “surprisingly struck the right nerve… and, like any other painful truth, it hurts.” 
