Solons revive bill requiring aspiring journalists to take exam

MANILA, Philippines - Soon aspiring journalists may need to take board exams before they can be accredited as media practitioners.

Cagayan De Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao Party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez, Jr. have filed House Bill 2550 or the Magna Carta for Journalists, which will require aspiring journalists or media practitioners to take and pass an examination before being considered as "accredited journalists."

The proposed measure would create the Professional Journalist Examination and the Philippine Council for Journalists (PCJ), which will handle the exam for radio, television, print and photography.

Those who will fail the exam will be considered as "non-accredited journalists" but can still join media outfits.

"They will still be allowed to exercise their duties and rights as journalists and enjoy only those benefits and privileges accorded to them by their employers," Rodriguez said.

Journalists who have been in the practice for 10 years are exempted from the proposed examination.

Rodriguez said the objective of the bill is to promote and protect journalists' welfare, rights and freedom.

"Journalists, as purveyors of truth, risk their life and limb in order to make people aware of the local, national and international events. They provide the essential vehicle for the exchange of ideas between cultures and nations. Hence, the approval of this measure is earnestly sought," Rodriguez said.

A similar legislation authored by Senator Jinggoy Estrada is already pending in the Upper House.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has raised concern over the legislation. It said the proposed PCJ - the body that will give the accrediation exam - may limit journalists' rights and endanger press freedom.

"The possibility is that the implementing rules and regulations that would follow the bill once it becomes law would transform the PCJ into a government agency, since it would not make sense for such a Council to be without any means to compel compliance. That would be an unacceptable risk to press freedom, as well as unconstitutional," the CMFR said in a statement last August.