"IMPACT OF CITIZEN

JOURNALISM AND SOCIAL

MEDIA"
LOPEZ, MARY CARMEL GRACE
LUMENTIGAR, JEAN
KATADA, KEAN JUANO
LASTIMOSO, NIKKI ROSE
PACULANANG, JUSTINE FAITH
According to Mr. Nestor Punzalan, he was
traumatized after being wrongly accused of a
crime he did not commit and received death
threats from online users aimed at him and his
family. Aside from that, his name got tarnished
due to a murder accusation.
Atty. DJ Jimenez, Punzalan's lawyer, stated it was a civil
liability. According to him, Top Gear PH, as well as other
media outlets, and netizens who wrongfully accused his
client, were liable for Cybercrime Prevention Act
because what they did was a form of cyberbullying.
The root cause of the misleading news was citizen journalism,
conducted by people who are not professional journalists but
disseminate information using websites, blogs, and social
media. In this case, social media was the platform used to
spread info. Online users who were not careful with their
actions used this platform to express their biased opinions and
reached the point of sending death threats to Mr. Punzalan and
his family.
People on social media are uncontrollable, very much like
everyone else. It would be difficult for us to prevent
incidents like Mr. Punzalan's experience from happening
all over again. The least we can do is to be the bigger
person and do what we know is right. That is, by being
mindful of our actions when using the internet.