MANILA, Philippines — A group of Filipino journalists blasted state-run Philippine News Agency on Monday for what it said was peddling falsehood about how other nations reacted to the human rights situation in the Philippines.
In a letter sent to Martin Andanar, the Presidential Communications Operations Office secretary, Virginia Arcilla Agtay, PNA’s news and information Bureau, Luis Morente, the outfit’s acting executive editor and Lilybeth Ison, its acting managing editor, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines severely criticized PNA for using the taxpayer-funded news outfit to “legitimize” what it called a blatant manipulation of truth.
Ironically, President Rodrigo Duterte, his spokespersons and government officials have repeatedly attacked media organizations for their alleged twisting of truth in their coverage of his presidency. A recent appointee to the PCCO, Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson said she would use the post to spread "tamang balita" or "correct news", in apparent contrast to reports perceived as critical of the administration.
Duterte has specially targeted the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer and television station ABS-CBN for their alleged slant in their coverage.
“Please treat this letter as both an inquiry as well as a protest into the use of what we have always considered a legitimate news agency to 'legitimize' the blatant manipulation of the truth, a charge that, ironically, has repeatedly been leveled at other media outfits by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte, his spokespersons and other government officials, thus fueling anger among administration supporters that has led to the harassment and threatening of journalists,” the PNA letter, written on Saturday and posted online on Monday, said.
NUJP lambasted PNA and its editorial staff for not critically reporting the comments of Epimaco Densing, an Interior assistant secretary, after he claimed that 95 of the 105 countries that participated in the recent Universal Periodic Review of the human rights situation in the country said that there were no extralegal killings happening in the Philippines.
READ: FACT CHECK: PNA replaces fake news that 95 states are convinced there are no EJKs in the country
Densing’s claim was contrary to all other accounts of the positions of the participant-countries that were registered, according to NUJP.
The group also hit the replacement of the story that, it said, was an attempt to shift the focus from the first article, which it described as “fake from the get-go.”
“While we do not question your editorial prerogatives and do understand that you face certain limitations as a government-run news service, we do wonder how Mr. Densing’s comments, which apparently run counter to all other accounts of the positions the participant-countries to the UPR actually registered, could have been reported so uncritically,” it said.
Densing has also disavowed a quote reported by PNA that country representatives had told him that "it was the first time they heard that the figures reaching them were 'spoiled and rotten information'."
"I never mentioned those words, 'spoiled and rotten,'" Densing said in a Rappler report on Saturday.
On Sunday, VERA Files reported that PNA took down on May 20 a story it had run claiming that 95 countries that participated in the review were convinced that there were no extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
It said that without any explanation or apology, the state new service replaced the headline and the entire story of the text of what used to be an article titled “95 nations in 3rd UPR convinced no EJKs in PHL.”
VERA Files,an independent news team run by veteran journalists, said that the new title of the story was “PHL’s human rights situation commended at UPR.”
NUJP said that based on the review’s official database of recommendations, Densing’s claims were clearly false.
The situation was made worse after "fake news" sites picked up and distributed Densing’s “canard” in an effort to counter international criticism of the human rights situation in the Philippines, NUJP said. Fake news has been used to refer to propaganda made to look like legitimate news reports.
NUJP said: “It has not helped that the first PNA story has already been picked up and exploited by fake news sites, which peddle Densing’s canard to counter the international concern over the current human rights situation in the country and to further smear mainstream media outfits that have reported accurately on the REAL position of the countries that attended the UPR.”
The group also expressed concern over the possible effect on the professional reputation of journalists of the use of PNA to legitimize lies and falsehood.