Abella’s ‘fake news’ admonition

We acknowledge Palace Spokesperson Ernesto Abella’s admonition to the media to accurately report what is happening, not just in Marawi City but throughout the country, in a highly fluid situation where developments unfold at breakneck and, admittedly, often confusing speed.

Which is why we exhort our colleagues to exercise extreme care in ensuring that unfolding events are reported to our audiences as accurately as possible; and, in the event we commit mistakes in the heat of the moment, to immediately acknowledge and correct these.

But we do find it disingenuous of Abella to address his appeal solely to — presumably private — media, and not include the government’s own news outfits and, especially, the default “official sources” in the civil and security establishments who have often been at loggerheads, making often contradictory pronouncements and, worse, deliberately spreading wrong or totally false information even before the start of the emergency that prompted the imposition of martial law in Mindanao.

Do we even need to remind Abella of the Philippine News Agency’s seemingly deliberate attempt to manipulate the truth through its fake news stories? While it has yet to apologize for, or even acknowledge, the story on the supposed declaration by United Nations member-states that extrajudicial killings do not exist in the country, PNA, yet again, tried to mislead the public by using a photo of an American soldier in Vietnam to depict “urban warfare” in Marawi.

And do we need to remind the secretary of President Duterte himself reporting the beheading of a police officer who turned up very much alive a couple of days later?

Which is why we find it utterly despicable of Abella and AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla to warn of fake news and to threaten censorship or even arrests. Their warning is nothing but a bald threat against press freedom and free expression.

No, sirs, you have no call to tell us what or what not, when or when not, to report, especially not if the very government and institutions you serve—which we are obliged to treat as official sources—cannot even ensure the accuracy of the information you provide.

Instead, we urge—no, in fact, we demand—that you tighten your act and provide our people with information that is accurate and verifiable, instead of “such items that can be easily misinterpreted or sensationalized.”

Nor will we be cowed into silence by such threats. We will not abandon our duty to serve our people’s right to know. Indeed, we urge our colleagues to ask  those who purport to lead us the hard questions, for it is in times like this, when our liberties are most at risk, that we should demand of them the answers on which the future of our people and our nation depends.

RYAN ROSAURO,

Chair, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, [email protected]