PCOO exec sees need for legal definition of fake news

FAKE NEWS HEARING. Senator Grace Poe (foreground), chair of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, listens to Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Asst. Sec. Ana Maria Paz Banaag during the public hearing on the proliferation of fake and misleading news and false information on October 4, 2017 at the Senate in Pasay City. Beside Banaag are PCOO Usec. Joel Egco (left) and PCOO Asst. Sec. Margaux “Mocha” Uson. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA — A Communications official on Wednesday said that there is a need to find a legal definition for the term fake news noting that the problem has reached “alarming proportions.”

“The first and the most important thing to do is to find a legal definition for fake news,” Philippine News Agency (PNA) supervising Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco told a Senate panel during a hearing on fake news.

Egco explained that there should be an effort to clearly define fake news and determine its parameters before penalizing those who would create or spread them.

“There should be clearly-established and identifiable elements in spotting fake news. For starters, we can argue that fake news is ‘the unscrupulous and malicious propagation of information that aims to deliberately mislead or misinform a targeted audience or tend to cause panic, division, chaos, violence and hate among the general public when the source or author has full knowledge of the truth or even factual details about a particular issue of interest,’” Egco said.

“But defining fake news, spotting them or penalizing those acts are easier said than done…Thus, the need for a carefully studied, well-thought of and generally accepted measure,” he added noting that it would discourage people from committing unlawful acts.

Media literacy

Because there were barely ways to stop people from sharing fake news, Egco also stressed the importance of public education.

“We have to adopt and embark on such a program if only to educate the public on the more productive uses of social media and the consequences of using these platforms in carrying out a sinister plan,” Egco said.

“Social media literacy could provide the key to solving it (the problem of fake news),” he added.

He said it is also worthy to consider creating a body to go after fake news sources.

“We have to find a highly credible and competent body to do the job…should there be a need to put up such a body, it should be well-represented by all stakeholders, probably a Commission on Freedom of sorts,” Egco said.

He said the solution to the problem of fake news requires a “multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach to public education on the eradication of fake news as the centerpiece of the engagement.”

Egco said that his office would submit a position paper on the pending measures.

Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Banaag backed Egco’s suggestion and added that amendments to the Cybercrime law could also be made.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, for her part, said that the government, in essence, already knew the definition of fake news as it even held a roundtable discussion “Countering Fake News and Communicating the Right Information” about the topic.

Egco explained that the discussion was a gathering of media personalities from ASEAN to formulate a regional approach to combatting fake news but not to come up with a legal definition for it.

Interaksyon editor-in-chief Roby Alampay, meanwhile, expressed support for Egco’s proposal.

“One thing obvious at this point is that nobody agrees on one definition (of fake news),” Alampay said.

In an interview with reporters after the hearing, Poe said that it was too early to tell if Egco’s proposal is “something we can sustain” and could not say what legislation she could craft based on the hearing.

“There should be government accountability but we don’t know yet if it will be something we can sustain. I want to able to collate and analyze what has been discussed in this hearing before I start spewing suggestions on this legislation,” Poe said.

Oxymoron

Vera Files president Ellen Tordesillas, one of the resource persons invited to the hearing, however, said that she is personally “uncomfortable” with the term fake news because it was an oxymoron.

“I don’t think it’s right to call it fake news. Fake news are lies masquerading as truth,” Tordesillas said explaining that an element of news is that it was to be “accurate.”

Tordesillas said the actual problem lies in public officials spreading lies stressing that “accountability should be on the sources.”

“Ang nakikita kong problema ang opisyal ng pamahalaan na nagsasabi ng kasinungalingan (What I see as the problem is when government officials tell lies). Social media are just platforms,” Tordesillas said.

“What is deplorable in officials spreading fake news is they are doing this on taxpayer’s money,” she added.

Another resource person, ABS-CBN Senior Vice President Ging Reyes, said the term fake news should be replaced with the term “misinformation.” (With reports from Niña Venus-OJT) (PNA)