What do you know, Cebu Press Freedom Week started in 1984
Cebu Press Freedom Week
From left, Sun.Star Daily issues in September 1988, 1984 and 1994 announce the activities of the Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration.
What do you know, Cebu Press Freedom Week started in 1984
BY ERMA M. CUIZON
Sept. 25, 2014 ( CJJ10 )
IT was 30 years ago when Cebu media in 1984 came together as advocates of truth in community living and to declare the power of the voice in the press. From then on, Cebu media tried its best to celebrate press freedom every year. This Sept. 20-27 is the 22nd celebration of the Cebu Press Freedom Week, continually empowering the efforts to unify and speak for the people.
Years before the Cebu press came together with one voice on its freedom, there were instances of persecutions from the 1970s up to the ‘80s during the Martial Law regime, especially in the ‘80s when there were cases of persecutions, killings and arrests of Cebu media personalities in a period in Philippine history when the voice of the people was stifled, not only in Cebu, but throughout the country.
But it was also in the ‘80s that Cebu media started to work in groups, to celebrate the freedom of the country after Martial Law was “lifted” and dictator Ferdinand Marcos fled the country while the Edsa Revolution would then show the world the Filipino spirit for freedom.
Former editor-in-chief of Sun.Star Cebu, now public and standards editor Pachico Seares, pushed media groups in the ‘80s as president of the Association of Cebu Journalists (ACJ) to celebrate and watch over freedom of expression in the community.
The first celebration of Cebu Press Freedom Week was undertaken by ACJ, the Cebu Newspaper Workers’ Foundation (now the Cebu News Workers’ Foundation) and Cebu News Correspondents Club. It was held on the third week of September 1984 led by Seares, with movers from Sun.Star Cebu (then called Sun.Star Daily) working on the resources needed in the week’s memorial lecture and forums from Sept. 9 to 15.
Aside from the 4th President Sergio Osmeña Memorial Lecture, marking the weeklong fete were a floral offering on Borromeo St., Cebu City where The Republic News editor-columnist Antonio Abad Tormis was shot dead, a press freedom symposium with assemblymen Marcelo B. Fernan and Adelino B. Sitoy and the Associated Press bureau chief, and a press conference with two former senators.
Other activities included an exhibit on Cebu newspapers, a film showing, an open house of Cebu newspaper offices and printing plants, and a luncheon fellowship hosted by Cebu Gov. Eduardo Gullas and Cebu City Mayor Ronald Duterte.
In two years’ time from there, the Edsa revolution took place.
In 1988, the Council of Cebu Media Leaders (CCML), an umbrella organization of the heads of 11 media clubs in Cebu, with Seares as acting chairman, led the Press Week celebration. The CCML organized the celebration again in 1994.
And it’s been held yearly ever since, except for 1996, when the fete was cancelled.
In 1997, to ensure that the groups involved were of the real working press, the celebrators of press freedom were enlisted as working individual members of media outlets, said Seares. This was formalized two years later by having Sun.Star Daily, The Freeman and Cebu Daily News take turns in convening the celebration year after year.
With more sponsors coming in and the watch staying firm, the Cebu Press Freedom Week on its 22nd celebration is strong and hale. The voice of the press is solid and one in the matter of free expression.
Nowhere else in the country do you see a radio and television connection like in Cebu’s ABS-CBN’s “Kapamilya,” GMA 7’s “Kapuso” and TV 5’s “Kapatid”—with AM and FM radio station personalities and newspaper workers coming together, as in a family—to keep in touch with each other and connect on the hottest media issues of the year.
The Cebu press is set on its 30th year of watchfulness. The watch for rights is the heart of the mission.
How the Cebu press freedom week is run
Ad hoc convenors, continuing board of trustees
Lead convenors alternately run Cebu Press Freedom Week (CPFW). Sun.Star, The Freeman and Cebu Daily News used to take turns but since 2011, The Freeman has dropped out, preferring to join the activities but not in managing the annual celebration.
In 2012, CDN was lead convenor; in 2013, it was Sun.Star. This year, the board of trustees, through an Execom, oversees the activities. Then back to CDN in 2015.
While the convenors are ad hoc, the board of trustees is a continuing body, assuring uninterrupted system of governance.
Cebu Press Freedom Week, Inc. is duly incorporated and registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Its board of trustees lays down policies on the management of the weeklong activities. 
