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Saturday, June 24, 2017
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FAKE news is nothing new. In the Philippine context, it was done by Spaniards and the American forces in branding Katipuneros as bandits and brigands while they were in fact our nationalist freedom fighters.
Imperialist Spain and America also peddled fake news that they came to the Philippines to make us “civilized” but they just actually used our country as source of raw materials, cheap and docile labor and dumping ground of their surplus products. In short, they plundered our country but spread the false information that it was for our own good.
This was also what dictator Ferdinand Marcos did to justify actions against the people and in eliminating critics. Remember the fake ambush on then Defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile that was cited as one of the reasons to declare martial law? Those fake news created false and distorted history that up till now has to be corrected.
So how do we solve the growing problem of fake news? While the proliferation of fake news and online misinformation has to be addressed decisively, is criminalizing it the way forward?
There’s a proposed anti-fake news bill but its very broad scope may infringe on the people’s constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression. Certainly, the bill needs to be discussed, analyzed and debated thoroughly.
Here’s one thing that can be done to address fake news – for mainstream and social media practitioners to be objective in reporting events, and for Congress to fast-track the passage of the Freedom of Information bill for the Filipino people to know what is truly happening in the country.
One effective way to counter fake news is for the people to be well informed of accurate facts, and to make these accurate facts accessible to them.
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