52. Peeved with good intentions
Why the Palace's planned media literacy campaign raises concerns
Welcome back to Slow News Days, a now-and-then newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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Apologies for the radio silence, it has been a particularly busy couple of weeks, one of which was spent in Australia with Filipino journalists to learn about the media landscape there.
As we were flying back to Manila, though, an announcement from the Presidential Communications Office that it will “implement a Digital Media Literacy campaign this year, seeking to equip the most vulnerable communities with knowledge and tools ‘to be discerning of the truth’.”
This is by no means a new tack for the PCO (nor for its predecessor, the Presidential Communications Operations Office).
The Palace has been, in various forms, been engaged in similar campaigns over the years — from the ‘Real Numbers’ campaign during the worst of the ‘drug war’, to the silly #ExplainExplainExplain mantra of the Philippine Information Agency.
All of that while also benefiting from — if not engaging outright in — approved misinformation and disinformation.
Announced on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the campaign will “bring the online experiences of females of all ages into focus” and combat misinformation and disinformation that undermine the rights of women and girls, PCO said.
Government is, of course, free to launch media literacy campaigns and it is true that the internet is especially vicious for women and girls, but there is also concern that the campaign will stray into propping up the government narrative and sidelining uncomfortable media and inconvenient dissent.
That has happened before and concerns are not without basis.
Australia — have I mentioned yet that I was there last week? — has a similar campaign to protect women and girls from misogyny and gendered online abuse, including social media self defense and regulation.
The PCO campaign mentions none of these in the vague announcement, but, it is impossible to object to campaigns to make the internet safer — unless that is by labeling certain ideas, speech and content as “dangerous” and out of bounds.
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Particularly proud of the special reports that our tiny news team did for the EDSA People Power anniversary, which, unfortunately, like the commemoration itself, may not have received as much attention as deserved. So, here they are:
As EDSA memory fades, children’s book creators hope to pass on People Power stories
The Catholic Church's place was at EDSA in 1986, where should it be now?
In nation of frustrated readers, history teachers share People Power through videosSome of our team also traveled to Oriental Mindoro to report on an oil spill there that threatens waters in the region, including the fragile Verde Island Passage.
The spill threatens shoreline ecosystems too: What happens when oil enters mangrove environments?Meanwhile, from the Lopez journalism siblings: A story on conflict (of interest) — Barangay chairman works for gas plant in Ilijan, Batangas — and (potential) — Over the South China Sea, dispute simmers via radios and rhetoric.
While we’re on the West Philippine Sea dispute, a town in Palawan is betting that tourist boat expeditions will help the country stake its claim on waters that are within its exclusive economic zone: Kalayaan LGU turns to tourism, game fishing in tense West Philippine Sea