ZAMBOANGA CITY – City Mayor Celso Lobregat has called on the campus journalists attending the 2009 Regional Schools Press Conference here to always exercise accuracy, fairness, and balance reporting, saying that press freedom is not absolute.

Lobregat said the Philippine Constitution guarantees press freedom.

“In its own sphere, campus journalism exercises this freedom and this power to influence its readers, including the faculty and the administration,” he stressed.

However, the mayor emphatically told the campus journalists from different schools all over the Zamboanga Peninsula that the power of the press or press freedom has its own limitations.

“It is not absolute, that is to tell only the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about any event or issue,” he added.

But Lobregat lamented that the exercise of any power lends itself readily to abuse. “Responsible journalists must see to it that this weapon is not misused.”

“This power is not a license for anyone in the profession to malign and destroy the integrity of a person,” he pointed out. “Press freedom is always accompanied by a corresponding responsibility.”

He said the conduct of this year’s Regional Schools Press Conference is a manifestation of the government efforts, particularly the Department of Education (DepEd), towards improving the students’ journalistic skills and promoting responsible and free journalism aside from strengthening the ethical values, encouraging critical and creative thinking, developing moral character among campus writers.