Recent decree laws in Chile, if implemented, will eliminate all professional "colegios" (governing bodies), including those for medicine, law, and journalism, and allow them the alternative of forming free trade unions. The twenty "colegios" of Chile require university education for membership and serve as monitors of the education and ethics within their professions. For journalists, the government action is particularly perplexing and exasperating. To understand their feelings, one has to examine the contributions of the "colegio" to journalists in the past. Whatever its value, however, it must be noted that the journalism "colegio" has always struggled with political divisiveness among its members, apathy, a small budget and staff, and even the inability to enforce its own regulations. Perhaps the most difficult of the "colegio's" activities to evaluate are those involving freedom of the press. The "colegio" has protested in one form or another every decree the military government has issued limiting freedom of the press, but little evidence exists that the government has taken them seriously. In any event, the rigidity of the government in its views and actions regarding professional "colegios" apparently has, in effect, activated an antigovernment group that did not previously exist. It is likely that the journalism "colegio" will take on the nature of a trade union, issuing credentials rather than setting educational and ethical standards. (HOD)