Senate should protect the right to blog
IN our still developing country, we have yet to appreciate the unique role that bloggers and new media play in the exercise of our democracy. Blogging is but a new online channel for our freedom of expression, and we should cherish and protect this right.
Unenlightened politicians and some members of traditional media are mocking the capability of bloggers, saying that they just propagate fake news. Bloggers are independent writers who run and manage their own blogs or websites. But as in any medium, some are better than others.
It wasn’t so long ago that newspapermen themselves ridiculed television reporters for being shallow and unworthy of respect. We in print media looked down on TV people as “obsessed with their looks” and “not serious journalists.”
So it is now that traditional media – which now includes television – is looking askance at bloggers and saying, “You are not real journalists.”
However, in more advanced nations such as the United States, the journalist versus blogger debate has been declared as over. There is now a blurring of lines as the bloggers become more professional and circumspect, and traditional journalists write more pieces online, in real time.
Websites such as Huffington Post and Politico, whose content was largely contributed by bloggers, has now won Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Bloggers writing about technology and other specialized areas have earned praise for their high-quality work that rivals those in traditional newspapers.
It will take us years, perhaps decades to catch up though, and the Senate opposition’s outdated stance on new media will keep us firmly stuck in 1980s, pre-Internet mode of thinking.
Popular blogger RJ Nieto was the one who uncovered the identity of the man behind the maligning of seven senators who allegedly did not sign Senate Resolution 516 condemning extrajudicial killings.
Through his investigation of Google publisher IDs, he wrote about one Cocoy Dayao, the reported administrator of the website “SilentNoMorePH.”
Dayao, according to Nieto, is also the man behind other anti-Duterte websites that are spreading fake news. It was in Dayao’s website that the malicious report appeared claiming seven senators allied with President Rodrigo Duterte refused to sign the resolution and they were branded “Malacañang dogs.” The senators said the document was never sent to them.
Senator Tito Sotto, one of the senators who was maligned by the personal attacks in Dayao’s website, vowed to file a cybercrime libel case against the owner and administrator of “SilentNoMorePH.”
This incident prompted the call for a Senate hearing on “fake news” conducted by Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Committee On Public Information and Mass Media. However, Dayao failed to show up to explain himself. Poe said she will issue a subpoena for Dayao to appear in the next hearing.
Dayao’s absence thus became the perfect opportunity for the Senate opposition to badger the pro-Duterte bloggers who came to the hearing as resource persons. Blogger Mocha Uson, who has 5.2 million followers, was grilled for allegedly spreading “fake news” such as using a photograph of foreign soldiers.
But I’ve been following Uson’s blog for sometime now and can say that I’ve found it quite bland and innocuous. She shares mostly reports from traditional media, and lately those from the presidential communications office where she is now assistant secretary.
Perhaps the opposition senators are just envious of Uson’s wide reach and social engagement, numbering in the millions, which are beating the online versions of traditional media? They should just try and understand this new medium instead of attacking its successful practitioners.
Fake news online was not invented by bloggers. One can see fabricated news in all media, and it is the individual’s responsibility to determine which to believe in, or to share with friends and family.
People who are new to the Internet often fall for these fake news, which are very cleverly packaged. This is no different from the time when email was new and many succumbed to “fake emails” about friends being kidnapped abroad and needing your financial assistance. But despite these criminal attempts to fleece people of money no one was stupid enough to call for the censorship of emails.
The Senate should desist from passing any law that will curtail the freedom of Filipinos to write, speak, and express themselves, whether it be in traditional media or on the Internet. Philippine laws on libel and cybercrime provide enough recourse for people who feel they’ve been victimized through this new medium.
The last thing the country needs is another inane agency such as an “institute of truth” as suggested by former government official in the hearing. This will make us a laughing stock in the whole world.