This month, as our nation marks the start of the 2025 elections and the 39th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, the importance of journalism demonstrates that press freedom remains democracy's keystone, allowing our generation to lead the nation to wise self-governance.
When you pick up a pen as a student-journalist, you’re not just writing an article—you’re lighting a match in the dark. What you do—typing in your drafts for your article, chasing thumbnail proposals for a holiday visual between classes, formulating questions that matter for your next interview—isn’t just an assignment. It’s the quiet heartbeat of democracy, and it matters more than you know as someone who’s in a campus press organization.
As student journalists, we emerge as vital guardians of democracy, wielding pens to educate voters and scrutinize candidates. We are seekers of truth who continue a legacy of youth-led accountability-–from exposing Marcos-era abuses in underground newsletters to combating today's disinformation with fact-checks, and pushing back against tyrannical tantrums from a candidate who attacks student-journalists' organizations. Our ability to counter misinformation, enhance youth voices, and protect the democratic principles our predecessors have struggled to uphold must strand strong.
Democracy’s first classroom
Let’s be honest: politics can feel distant when you’re juggling your midterms and part-time endeavors, but when a student-journalist explains how a candidate’s plan on healthcare can take care one’s family member, transportation fare proposals that could save your allowance, or why a tax bill might affect your tuition next semester, suddenly, democracy clicks.
That is our power.
Unlike mainstream media chasing viral moments, student publications prioritize depth over clicks. When a mayoral candidate visits a university, professional media might focus on crowd size or sound bites. Campus journalists? They’ll dissect the candidate’s allegiance whether it's to their party or constituents, its educational background, their projects that they have invested through taxpayer’s money, and more that concerns the welfare of the student body, city, and the nation.
This granular focus makes journalism indispensable—a mirror reflecting issues that shape our lives, held up by hands too often dismissed as “inexperienced writers and artists.”
When truth matters, it causes a Spark
On Feb. 8, The SPARK—the official student-community publication of Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC)—released a mock election result showing a tight race among local candidates. Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte called the student-community publication’s work on the survey “fake news” and demanded the college rein in its students.
But here’s what he didn’t expect: our generation doesn’t back down. The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) made a stand against the aspiring governor through social media, students of CSPC stood in solidarity in a peace rally in their campus, and the student-journalists’ organizations in the Philippines flooded with #DefendSpark in social media. It noted that Rep. Villafuerte’s reaction mirrored patterns seen during martial law—a period when campus newspapers played pivotal roles in documenting abuses.
Why? Because an attack on one campus journalist is an attack on all of us. This isn’t new. During martial law, student journalists hid mimeograph machines to document abuses. At EDSA, their underground newsletters became protest blueprints.
Today, our battles look different—cyberbullying instead of arrests, troll farms instead of censors—but the scrutinization? It’s the same. When De La Salle Philippines calls EDSA a time for reflection, they’re asking everyone to remember: every fact we check, every corruption story we break, carries on that legacy–that monumental moment when we yearn for freedom from tyranny.
The unfiltered lens of campus journalism
Why is campus journalism particularly perilous to those in power? The reason is its raw candor. Student journalists are not plagued with cynicism that taints professional journalism. Our pages pound with pressing idealism, shouting "Why must we take this?" as others shrug and say "This is politics."
This perspective is necessary during election season; mainstream media generally prioritizes horse race politics first—who's ahead in polls, who delivered the most gaffe one-liner, but we dig deeper: we track whether candidates attended town hall assemblies or debates, analyze how campaign promises align with the needs of the public, and yes, conduct mock election surveys to teach statistical literacy.
They’ll say you’re “too young” to understand politics. Ignore that. Our so-called naivety is our strength to uphold the truth. No authority can extinguish the fire of those who are brave enough to ask, to verify, and to report on the enemies of truth.
Today’s campus journalists inherit a legacy attached to EDSA's history. During the revolution, underground student publications like Balikwas and Liwanag risked everything to distribute mimeographed exposes of Marcos-regime abuses. Their modern counterparts face different challenges—cyberlibel suits instead of typewriter seizures, online harassment rather than midnight arrests—but the core struggle remains: speaking the truth despite intimidation.
February’s confluence of EDSA’s anniversary and election campaigning invites reflection. This week, as we honor EDSA’s heroes, think about the light they passed us. Journalists like Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, who edited protest stories by candlelight emerged as one of the Philippines’ most consequential journalists, whose career spanned the Marcos dictatorship, the EDSA Revolution, and the restoration of democratic governance.
That light is ours to inherit.
Ethos in digital ink
With elections coming up in May, attacks on the credibility of student publications and campus journalist organizations will definitely increase. These are not speculative academic issues; when a congressman goes out of his way to discredit a college newspaper, expect a voice of the restless, where truth-tellers will be as loud as a roaring lion just to uphold the democratic truth.
The EDSA revolution teaches us that democracy prevails when ordinary citizens perform extraordinary acts of bravery. Now, such courage is being put into practice by student journalists who check campaign promises, report vote-buying attempts, and inform first-time voters how to vote wisely.
De La Salle Philippines has also issued a statement to commemorate the EDSA People Power Anniversary, reminding students to make it a moment of reflection. This date should be important for students to remember, for in EDSA, protesters didn’t march for abstract ideals; they fought for specific truths—an end to dictatorship, restoration of press freedom, and accountability for stolen votes.
Our pencils and pens carry forward the work started by EDSA's "parliament of the streets"—constructing an informed citizenry that can exercise responsible self-rule.
To all the young student-journalists, your articles or artworks are more than assignments. They are reports from the trenches of democracy, an assurance that the fire of the truth continues to burn brightly in the hands of tomorrow's hands.
Keep writing—not just for grades or bylines, but because a nation’s democratic soul depends on voices like ours. Keep questioning. Keep shining. The future isn’t just watching—it’s reading. You’re proving that courage isn’t a relic of the past.
It’s alive, it’s vibrant, and it’s present in our Press IDs as student-journalists.
