Truth seekers. Truth speakers. Truth defenders.
Joseph Eli Occeño firmly believes that journalism is and should never be neutral.
He serves as the current Editor-in-Chief of The Torch Publication, the official student publication of Philippine Normal University.
To get to know him better, Republicasia asked Joseph a few questions about his journey as a student journalist fighting for press freedom in the country.
Behind the Persona
Tell me about yourself as a student journalist and your life outside of publication.
I had a very narrow opinion of journalism, possibly from the high school form of journalism which we all went through. I cycled through news articles, features, and literary articles as per the current needs of the publication. But the most important experience I had and continue to have is immersing myself with the broad struggle of the masses. I view journalism as a dialogical process, where we engage with the farmers, the working class, the indigenous peoples and the marginalized sector as we amplify their struggles.
Defining Moment
Tell me about that ‘defining moment’ that made you pursue journalism and continue to do so.
During my freshman year, our publication went to UP Diliman where the Lumad evacuees were sheltered and their Bakwit schools reinitiated. Up until then I knew nothing about the Lumad people aside from the pervading notion that there was supposedly an influx of them in Manila. I came to realize that in the rural communities an altogether different law applied to the people. I realize how petty I had been, clinging to sheltered notions of neutral journalism. The Lumad were not some words in history books and the occasional news article, they were real, marginalized, oppressed people. And we must stand in solidarity with them.
Generation Voice
What do you think is the most pressing issue that affects press freedom in the country nowadays? What do you think are the significant roles of young journalists in advancing genuine national press freedom?
Press freedom currently suffers under the mechanism of both an oppressive state apparatus and an ideological one. When in the previous administration journalists were discredited and threatened, the present one seems to want to drown them altogether with its own deceitful narratives. mainstream media must take a stand now or risk becoming a mere mouthpiece for the state. However, we as students cannot wait for them to do so. As student journalists we have the right and the privilege of being independent and alternative, we are not for profit nor are we only chroniclers of university events.
Powerful Quote
Tell me about your mantra as a journalist. What message can you give to the aspiring journalist of the new generation?
Ink Your Pen, Serve The People. As our predecessors Del Pilar, Rizal, and Lopez Jaena knew, there is no neutrality in journalism. My fellow student journalists, we are not recorders of history and we are not passive receptacles of ‘facts’ and data. Our bias towards truth and towards the masses whom we must serve should always be evident in every article we write, every cartoon we sketch, and every photo we take.
