Against The Deafening Silence

An opinion piece by Kristian Sandig

But they dote and swoon and fawn, on a lady who's withdrawn, It's she who holds her tongue
who gets her man…

Harsh and true, as Ursula sang, how most of us like to delude ourselves in silent ignorance for
the outspoken truth grates our ears. Like King Tigranes who sat merrily, ignorant of the flames
of war blazing around his nation after he had the messenger's head cut off. How can our
motherland protect herself as her voice gets taken away by those who distort reality?

It has been decades since the Philippine Press was considered the freest in Asia before the
Martial Law period where its status as the fourth state and the Government’s watchdog has been
slowly crumbling. Hundreds of journalists have since disappeared, executed, or threatened by the
corrupt and tyrannical clutches of the ones in power.

The story of Tigranes explains how the demonization of media can also play a role in tearing
down the confidence of the public in news media, and the nation with it.

LIAR! LIAR! NEWS FOR HIRE!

Many Filipinos have criticized legitimate news sources for ’fake news' and biased information
which can be attributed to political authorities sabotaging faith in news media. This is a
phenomenon brought by ‘demonization of the Media’. Duterte’s regime for example often
clashed with a certain news franchise with accusations of the network’s “biased” information
following the coverage of his ‘drug war’.

In March of 2020, President Duterte signed a law that provides funding and emergency powers
to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in the Philippines in which a provision sanctions those who
spread false information to a one million peso fine and up to 2 months in prison. Weeks later,
national and local authorities commenced a witch hunt against the critics of the government’s
response to the Coronavirus outbreak using existing legislation with the police filing cases
against reporters citing the violation of the COVID-19 law.

Duterte's administration weaponized the newly-signed law against misinformation and accused
government critics as spreaders of misinformation. There has even been a case in which
barangay leaders in Nueva Ecija threatened a student editor for his campus paper criticizing the
government's response to the pandemic to apologize.
Furthermore, many journalists today fear for their lives as they get routinely assaulted and
harassed in a manner in which cannot be simply compared to a verbal attack anymore. The
demonization of Media not only resulted in the weakening of the public’s faith in legitimate
news, but also the attack on the freedom of expression, the lives of journalists, and democracy
itself.

This caused the lukewarm attitude by the audience towards news and forced advertisers to
enforce consumerism in media by demoting to a marketed, sensationalized format of news which
sells instead of bringing in quality news to inform. Thus, the public can only rely on selective
news that they themselves (say they) want to hear and see. Thus, turning Filipinos’ sources of
information into an echo chamber for lobbying.

TRUST BROKEN, LIES SPOKEN

The difference between the Media and corrupt politicians towards news: the former releases
them, the latter distorts it.

Maria Ressa of Rappler delivered her speech for the Nobel Peace Award which expresses the
role of truth and transparency in the well-being of the Philippine society:

“Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have
no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with the existential problems
of our times: climate, coronavirus, now, the battle for truth.”

Fake news including misinformation and disinformation can indeed harm the democracy of the
Philippines. An example is during the election year in the Philippines where massive armies of
bots and trolls churn out false information online that acts as a propaganda tool, influencing the
public seeking to make those those with low media and information literacy to believe it and
spread those information while attacking legitimate news that goes against their preconceived
notions.

According to Professor Khan, former Chairperson of the Journalism Department of UP,

misinformation can “undermine the democracy of a country” especially since social media is
supposed to be a platform wherein ordinary citizens can communicate their own views. Instead,
misinformation suppresses those “legitimate voices” to encourage the false voices that aim to
distort and manipulate public opinion.

The story of Tigranes as stated before is an old tale of caution which tells us that without the
means to access relevant and accurate knowledge and information, we will be eventually
destroyed by our ignorance.
SILENCED NO MORE

"A woman doesn’t know how precious her voice is until she’s been silenced." -Ursula, The Little
Mermaid

The history of the public’s distrust of media has been an issue for a long time up until the present
day. The opinion towards the media has been wrought with doubt, criticism, and cynical remarks
as the issues between Journalism and Philippine Politics continue to prevail. Not only the
prevalence of “fake news” but also the demonization of the media contribute to its continuing
decline.

We must increase and expand our ways on how to deal with misinformation in order to combat
its detrimental effects on our society.

Future voters need to develop their media and information literacy as well as their fact-checking
and critical thinking skills. Public organizations must increase awareness on how online
misinformation works. Information literacy must be implemented in education either as a subject
or training requirement. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter should not only
resort to taking down posts that promote fake news but also alerting and educating their users on
the various ways to identify and report fake news in their platform.

A community built on truth, transparency, and freedom will find it easy to deal with existential
problems of Filipinos today: pandemic, corruption, human rights violations, electoral fraud,
propaganda, poverty, and many more.

It is imperative for each and one of us to cooperate in the battle against those who would dare
take away our legitimate voices and shared democracy for the betterment of future generations.