Philippine Journalism Review

Also known as: PJR — the standard abbreviation · Philippine Journalism Review : PJR — the Library of Congress catalog styling of the serial · PJR Reports — the monthly professional sister publication under the same title family · Media times : Philippine journalism review — the later title linking the journal to CMFR's annual review Media Times in the Library of Congress catalog

Media

Definition

The Philippine Journalism Review (PJR) is the journal of media criticism published by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) — the Quezon City press-freedom organization this wiki’s CMFR entry documents — serving as the publishing arm of the center’s mandate to audit press performance alongside defending press freedom. (Wikipedia — CMFR, CMFR — PJR program) The title has led two lives: it first appeared as a print magazine of media criticism — the Library of Congress catalog records the serial as first issued in Manila by the National Media Council from [1990-], with publication subsequently carried under CMFR — and in 2007 CMFR revived it as a refereed academic journal, an annual publication using double-blind review that CMFR describes as “the first of its kind in Asia,” aimed at students and professors of journalism and engaging academics in thematic discussion of the issues affecting media practice in the Philippines. (Wikipedia — CMFR, CMFR — PJR program, Library of Congress catalog)

Alongside the refereed annual, CMFR distributes PJR Reports, the title’s monthly sister publication addressed to working journalism professionals — first released as a quarterly, then as a bimonthly, before going monthly — which grew out of the center’s continuing monitoring of how the press covers and reports events and issues, carries case studies of media performance, and is sent to more than 500 journalists nationwide while serving as a reference for journalism faculty and students. (Wikipedia — CMFR) Both halves of the title’s work have been steered by CMFR executive director Melinda Quintos de Jesus, whom the University of the Philippines has called the “conscience of Philippine media,” with veteran journalist and UP College of Mass Communication figure Luis V. Teodoro serving as PJR Reports editor. (CMFR — PJR program, UP — Gawad Plaridel 2026)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	N/A (no standalone article; the journal is treated inside the Wikipedia article on the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility)
Wikidata	N/A (no matching entity in Wikidata as of this entry’s verification)
DBpedia	N/A
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Philippine journalism review (Library of Congress name–title authority for the serial; the catalog also carries PJR reports and Media times: Philippine journalism review as related serial works)
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Philippine Journalism Review PJR CMFR media criticism refereed journal 2007 revival double blind review PJR Reports media monitoring Melinda Quintos de Jesus Luis Teodoro press performance Philippines
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

PJR — the standard abbreviation
Philippine Journalism Review : PJR — the Library of Congress catalog styling of the serial
PJR Reports — the monthly professional sister publication under the same title family
Media times : Philippine journalism review — the later title linking the journal to CMFR’s annual review Media Times in the Library of Congress catalog

Examples and Analogies

Two journals, one watchdog: the title works like a law firm’s two practices under one name — the refereed annual argues the profession’s case to the academy in peer-reviewed form, while PJR Reports files the working briefs, monthly case studies of coverage that reach more than 500 newsroom desks. (Wikipedia — CMFR)
Criticism with an academic seal: by converting a magazine of media criticism into a double-blind refereed journal in 2007, CMFR gave the press audit the academy’s own credential — the strategy of making journalism’s self-examination as rigorous as the scholarship that studies it. (CMFR — PJR program)
The print forebear: like a family house passed between owners, the title’s early print life — recorded in the Library of Congress catalog as issued by the National Media Council in Manila from [1990-] — preceded its life as CMFR’s journal, and the catalog’s linkage of successive titles records the continuity. (Library of Congress catalog)
Verified publication data:
Original serial: Philippine journalism review, first issued Manila, National Media Council, [1990-], per the Library of Congress catalog record
Revival: 2007, as a refereed journal of media criticism published by CMFR (Wikipedia — CMFR)
Format: annual refereed academic journal; double-blind review; described by CMFR as the first of its kind in Asia (CMFR — PJR program)
Sister publication: PJR Reports — quarterly, then bimonthly, then monthly; addressed to journalism professionals; case studies of media performance from continuing monitoring; sent to over 500 journalists nationwide (Wikipedia — CMFR)
Editorial leadership: PJR Reports editor Luis V. Teodoro, CMFR deputy director; the title guided by CMFR executive director Melinda Quintos de Jesus (Wikipedia — CMFR, CMFR — PJR program)
Publisher: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, organized 1989, Quezon City (CMFR — About)
Catalog record: related serial works PJR reports (Library of Congress work record, 2006) and Media times : Philippine journalism review (2015) (Library of Congress catalog)

Usage Scenarios

1. Teaching Media Ethics and Press Criticism

PJR is the standard Philippine source for case-based teaching of newsroom ethics and coverage critique — the refereed annual for the seminar room, PJR Reports for the working reporter — the pairing this wiki’s entries on CMFR and Melinda Quintos de Jesus document as the center’s principal educational instrument. (CMFR — PJR program, Wikipedia — CMFR)

2. Researching Press-Performance Monitoring

Scholars of newsroom practice use PJR Reports’ case studies — products of CMFR’s continuing monitoring of how the press covers events and issues — as a longitudinal record of Philippine coverage performance across elections, corruption, and crisis reporting. (Wikipedia — CMFR)

3. Studying CMFR’s Programs

The journal is the publishing arm of the organization’s paired mandate: the monitoring that feeds PJR Reports and the ethics analysis that fills the refereed annual sit alongside the Ongpin awards, the citizens-press councils, and the Freedom Watch attack documentation this wiki’s CMFR entry describes. (CMFR — About)

4. Publishing Philippine Media Scholarship

Academics writing on Philippine media submit to the refereed PJR — the annual double-blind vehicle CMFR built to engage scholars in thematic discussion of media practice, and the first refereed journal of its kind in Asia by the center’s account. (CMFR — PJR program)

5. Verifying the Journal’s Record

Researchers citing PJR must work around its thin independent documentation: the title has no standalone Wikipedia article and no Wikidata item, and the onetime journal domain pjr.ph no longer serves journal content — claims should be anchored to CMFR’s own pages and the Library of Congress catalog, as this entry’s are. (Library of Congress catalog, CMFR — PJR program)

Strategies

Publish the audit: CMFR’s monitoring only bites when published — PJR converts surveillance of the press into circulated criticism, giving the accountability function a standing channel. (Wikipedia — CMFR)
Two audiences, two formats: the refereed annual for academics and the monthly reports for professionals keep both the scholarly and newsroom conversations attached to the same program. (CMFR — PJR program, Wikipedia — CMFR)
Peer review as legitimacy: the 2007 shift to double-blind refereeing aligned media criticism with academic standards — the move that let the journal claim to be first of its kind in Asia. (CMFR — PJR program)
Distribution as engagement: sending PJR Reports to more than 500 journalists nationwide builds the constituency the center’s ethics agenda requires — criticism that arrives on the desk it critiques. (Wikipedia — CMFR)
Continuity of stewardship: steering the title from print magazine through refereed revival under one executive director preserved institutional memory across the title’s format changes. (UP — Gawad Plaridel 2026)

Security and Safety Measures

Criticism inside a high-impunity environment: publishing systematic press criticism in a country with one of the world’s worst records of unpunished journalist killings is itself a protective practice — documentation and public critique substitute for the enforcement the state does not supply, the environment this wiki’s CMFR entry records. (Wikipedia — CMFR)
The organizational shield: PJR publishes under an institutional, non-stock organization rather than any individual’s name, so that media criticism proceeds under CMFR’s corporate standing rather than personal exposure. (CMFR — About)
Monitoring as early warning: the continuing coverage monitoring behind PJR Reports doubles as documentation of the press’s operating conditions — the evidentiary base that feeds alerts and databases shared with international free-expression networks. (Wikipedia — CMFR)
For researchers: the journal’s digital footprint is unreliable — pjr.ph no longer hosts the journal — so citations should be traced to CMFR’s own site and to library catalog records, and any print-run or founding-year claim beyond the catalog’s [1990-] should be attributed to its source. (Library of Congress catalog)

Historical Context

CMFR was organized in 1989, three years after the EDSA People Power Revolution, to pursue the paired mandate its name states — freedom and responsibility — and publication was among its first instruments: the Library of Congress catalog records the Philippine Journalism Review as issued in Manila by the National Media Council from [1990-], the print magazine of media criticism whose title and function CMFR subsequently carried and which the center’s executive director, Melinda Quintos de Jesus, steered through its print years. (CMFR — About, Library of Congress catalog)

In 2007 CMFR revived the title as a refereed academic journal — annual, double-blind, addressed to students and professors of journalism — while PJR Reports, launched in the mid-2000s as the professional monthly (the Library of Congress work record for PJR reports dates from 2006), carried the case studies from the center’s monitoring to more than 500 journalists nationwide. The catalog’s later record of Media times : Philippine journalism review (2015) ties the journal’s title family to the annual review Media Times published under de Jesus. The journal’s monitoring inheritance runs to the center’s whole documentation apparatus — the attack monitoring and trial watching this wiki’s CMFR entry records — with de Jesus’s stewardship of the title cited in the University of the Philippines’ 2026 Gawad Plaridel announcement honoring her as the conscience of Philippine media. (Wikipedia — CMFR, Library of Congress catalog, UP — Gawad Plaridel 2026)

Challenges and Controversies

The Documentation Gap

The journal’s own history is poorly consolidated: no standalone encyclopedia article exists, no Wikidata item, no reliably accessible journal site (pjr.ph no longer serves the journal), and the founding of the print magazine is recorded only in the Library of Congress catalog’s [1990-] National Media Council entry — so basic chronology must be assembled from the publisher’s own pages and catalog records, a gap this wiki’s CMFR entry flags for the organization as a whole. (Library of Congress catalog, CMFR — PJR program)

Persuasive, Not Coercive

Like all of CMFR’s ethics instruments, PJR’s criticism binds no one: newsrooms that ignore a PJR Reports case study or a refereed critique face argument, not sanction, and the broadcast and online sectors sit partly outside the print-centered accountability model — the standing limit of voluntary self-regulation this wiki’s CMFR and Tina Monzon-Palma entries record. (Wikipedia — CMFR)

The Academic-Newsroom Tension

Splitting the title between a refereed annual for academics and a monthly for professionals trades reach for rigor: the double-blind journal earns scholarly standing while circulating narrowly, and the monthly circulates widely while carrying no academic credential — the structural question of whether media criticism should court the academy or the newsroom, which the two-publication design manages rather than resolves. (CMFR — PJR program, Wikipedia — CMFR)