Philippines' media watchdog CMFR to close after 37 years

MANILA, Philippines — The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a fixture of Philippine journalism's post-dictatorship rebuilding, will shut down on September 30 after 37 years, citing mounting difficulty securing funds for its operations.

CMFR announced the closure Friday, September 18, citing the decision of its board. With it ends the work of one of the country's most established media watchdogs and an institution that helped shape professional and ethical standards in Philippine journalism.

"Philippine and international funding support has sustained the work of CMFR; but multiple factors have affected the funding environment, making it difficult for CMFR to secure the necessary funds for its operations," the organization said.

Established in 1989 by journalist Melinda Quintos de Jesus, three years after the People Power uprising ended the Marcos dictatorship, CMFR was created as the Philippine press rebuilt its freedoms and institutions after 14 years of authoritarian rule.

Its founding premise joined two concerns that would define much of its work: defending press freedom from outside interference while demanding greater responsibility from the press itself.

Over nearly four decades, CMFR became a persistent monitor of both.

It documented killings, threats and attacks against journalists, tracked impunity in media murders and regularly assessed the state of press freedom. At the same time, it scrutinized news coverage for accuracy, fairness, balance, context and sourcing, often publicly calling out lapses by news organizations.

That role placed CMFR in an unusual position in the industry. It defended journalists against repression while arguing that press freedom could be sustained only by stronger professional practice and self-regulation.

Building standards after dictatorship

CMFR began monitoring Philippine media in 1990, developing what became the Philippine Journalism Review and later PJR Reports into vehicles for peer review, accountability and continuing education.

Through media monitoring, training programs and published ethical guidelines, CMFR sought to establish common standards in a profession where routes into journalism, training and newsroom practices varied widely.

Its 2007 ethics manual was published as an effort to further professionalize Philippine journalism, linking ethical practice with competence and laying out guidance on accuracy, conflicts of interest, privacy and coverage of crises, crime, war, terrorism, women and children.

CMFR also organized training for working journalists, developed reporting manuals and established press councils intended to give members of the public a way to raise grievances against media without immediately turning to the courts.

PJR Reports became a regular forum for evaluating the performance of Philippine news organizations and a reference for journalism schools. CMFR described the publication as a mechanism for self-evaluation and correction, and as a model of media self-regulation.

The organization also spent two decades administering the Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism, which recognized investigative and explanatory reporting and helped establish benchmarks for sourcing, verification, fairness, accuracy and technical proficiency.

Its next iteration, the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar, annually selects journalists commended for their coverage of critical issues affecting Filipinos.

CMFR's ethics manual and other publications also became reference materials in universities, while its seminars regularly brought working journalists together with students and faculty.

Watching the watchdogs

As a watchdog, CMFR was frequently unsparing toward the industry it sought to protect.

Its media monitoring examined not only attacks on journalists but failures within journalism itself, including weak sourcing, lack of context, sensationalism and ethical lapses.

That combination of advocacy and criticism reflected an argument embedded in CMFR's work since its founding: that the credibility of the press was itself part of the defense of press freedom.

The organization also became a repository of data on attacks against journalists.

Its reports, often produced with other media organizations and press-freedom groups, documented journalist killings, legal harassment, red-tagging, surveillance, censorship and other threats across successive administrations.

CMFR's reports and alerts also circulated through international press-freedom networks, giving its documentation a role beyond the Philippine media industry.

An institution of the post-1986 press

The organization's lifespan covered markedly different periods for the Philippine press, from the democratic opening after Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s dictatorship through successive political crises, the rise of digital media, the collapse of traditional advertising models and renewed pressure on journalists.

CMFR described those 37 years as a mission carried out through "widely differing political environments and the diverse challenges they presented."

Its closure comes as the economics supporting journalism and media-development institutions have grown more difficult, while Philippine news organizations continue to face questions of financial sustainability, safety and public trust.

In its farewell statement, CMFR and its executive director thanked its past and present staff, journalists and news organizations, embassies, schools, students and civil society groups that had supported its work.

"We are truly grateful," De Jesus said. "Please accept our best wishes."