Group to promote responsible information sharing
About 1,500 communication officers and media practitioners will gather in a summit that seeks to promote responsible information sharing amid the proliferation of fake news.
The first National Information Convention will be held from Feb. 19 to 21 at the SMX Convention Center in SM Lanang, Davao City.
“The event seeks to strengthen partnership between private and public sector communicators in order to nurture a well-informed and enlightened citizenry,” the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said in a statement.
Groups from digital media and academe as well as nongovernment organizations and communication students have been invited to attend the convention.
PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar said the three-day convention would enable stakeholders to discuss ways to combat the spread of misinformation.
“The PCOO will help solve the problem of misinformation and disinformation. Our problem with fake news and disinformation requires a comprehensive solution,” Andanar said yesterday.
Critics have accused the Duterte administration of peddling fake news and using fake online accounts to spread propaganda.
One of the officials accused of spreading misinformation is PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, who has been using her blog to malign the opposition and media outlets accused of being biased against President Duterte.
Officials have denied the allegations, saying the government is one with press freedom advocates in countering fake news.
Andanar said the summit would include sessions on how the workings of media, communicating government policies, information dissemination in times of disasters and detecting fake news.
He said the President is expected to conclude the threeday event with a message.
Aside from Andanar, summit speakers are Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte, Philippine Information Agency director general Harold Clavite, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Presidential Task Force on media security executive director Joel Egco, dzMM reporter Noel Alamar, STAR columnist Cito Beltran and University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications dean Elena Pernia.