27 Years

27 years and counting, NewsRecord Weekly Publication stands as the only enduring bastion of community journalism in San Carlos City.

In this far-flung and quiet town, it should be least expected that community media can thrive. Proof of this is the fate of the now defunct AM radio station, DYRS, and NewsRecord's print contemporaries like Negros Gazette, Northern Star, San Carlos Chronicle, Lamdag, the news letter of the Local Government Unit, and San Carlos News.

Among the many obstacles the paper faced is of course finances. Back in 1984, when NewsRecord was still in conception, the publisher's supporters in the business sector each put up at least P 1,000 worth of ads. It was the super promo period when a thousand pesos already meant year-long ads on the four-page weekly newspaper.

During its first two years, NewsRecord was sold for only two pesos until the price increase five years later when the paper was sold at five pesos. At the turn of the century and just when everything was becoming digitized, NewsRecord gave up the price tag. Since then, it is being given for free to the public. It has been relying on revenues from publication of court orders, legal notices, and sporadic advertisements.

Another barrier is the local society itself. Geographically, the city, where NewsRecord was born, is on a very strategic position that makes it one of the most important travel hubs of the Visayas. It provides for easy access to Panay and Cebu Islands at very minimal costs. However, landlord politics took the better, not to mention scraped the best assets, of the city. The economy here, which is the wellspring of media, is heavily controlled by landlord politicians whose understanding of the role of the press is superficial, if not non-existent.

These same politicians which are considered the primary sources of news in every community also maintain the upper hand in the cat and mouse game with journalists. By denying reporters access to public documents and refusing interviews, they build a wall that denies the people their right to know and forfeits the job of the media. This wall of silence grows higher and higher for NewsRecord journalists to climb. Yet, climb it they do week after week.

This attitude of local leaders, in turn, reflects the general mentality of the people. Despite the presence of a patronage for NewsRecord that dates back to the beginning, many still do not read, let alone buy, newspapers and magazines that tackle political and social issues. Many still have the gossip mentality or that preference for entertainment over news and current affairs.

Despite these barriers, the 27-year old newspaper continues to serve the community with its rooster of experienced journalists and editors who struggle to instill in the minds of the people the value of critical thinking through reading reliable local news and information and the importance of upholding every citizen's right to information and freedom of expression.

From its first editor, Rodulfo Mahilum, to the present, NewsRecord holds true to its principles and remains a viable avenue for the ordinary people of San Carlos to express their grievances against the ruling class. Indeed, throughout the years of autocracy only NewsRecord has waged, in the words of Jefferson, "eternal hostility against any form of tyranny over the mind of man."