Points out chairman not involved in the paper’s daily operations
THE Manila Times on Monday dismissed insinuations that it is under the control of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte because of the appointment of the paper’s Chairman Emeritus Dr. Dante Ang Sr. as special envoy for international public relations.
Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd, president of The Manila Times Publishing Corp. said Dr. Ang is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the newspaper.
“Moreover, his position as Presidential Envoy for International Public Relations does not affect the daily editorial operations of The Manila Times,” he said.
The Manila Times made the clarification after Maria Ressa, chief executive of online news site Rappler, pointed to the connection of some bloggers to mainstream media during a Senate inquiry into the proliferation of “fake news.”
While Ressa did not mention The Manila Times directly, her PowerPoint presentation showed a photo of the paper’s chairman emeritus accompanying a story on his appointment as special envoy posted on May 16, 2017.
Ressa in her presentation described how “content creators” of so-called fake news in social media could jump into the real world though traditional media.
“When I run the accounts that are attacking other women journalists, they are similar to this, different leads, but these are the content creators. And they are broken down by demographic. You can see, the pseudo-intellectuals, the middle class, and the mass-based,” she said.
“That, as a base, is where our information comes from. The second one is when you take the social media team, and it jumps into the real world. And a favorite place where it jumps is…traditional media.”
“So we in traditional media also do it, but one of the bloggers here, the pro-Duterte blogger also writes for this publication, and finally from there, there’s also the connection to the State,” Ressa said, showing a photo of a Times columnist, followed by the paper’s chairman emeritus.
The panel chairman, Sen. Grace Poe, said the Philippines has enough laws to protect the public from fake news and disinformation and what is needed is for these laws to be implemented properly.
“We have libel and other laws, what is important if to implement them completely,” Poe told reporters after the inquiry.
‘Seven deadly Sens’
Senate Majority leader Vicente Sotto 3rd confronted blogger Jover Laurio over the “Seven Deadly Sens” post she shared on her blog. Laurio is behind the “Pinoy Ako Blog.”
Sotto chided Laurio for not taking down the post even after knowing that the contents of the post were inaccurate.
Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) apologized to Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao over an internet post she made two years ago, accusing the then Saranggani congressman of having a mistress.
Badoy explained that she only came out with the post because he was “hurt” by the remarks of Pacquiao on the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.
“It really hurts me because a lot of people close to my heart belong to that community…” the PCOO official said before apologizing to Pacquiao.
‘Mocha blog’ doesn’t represent Palace communications office – Andanar
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the blog of his controversial assistant secretary, Mocha Uson, did not represent the views of his office on national issues.
Andanar issued the clarification when asked by Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino 4th to comment on a statement by Ressa that Uson was a “purveyor” of fake news.
“When Mocha became part of the PCOO I made it clear with her the different government media entities. I told her that all the news coming out from these government media platforms are real news,” said Andanar, who heads the PCOO.
Andanar said he told Uson that “whatever she said in her blog was not a reflection of PCOO.”
“If you judge PCOO based on her blog [that] would be unfair. The Mocha blog does not represent PCOO,” Andanar said.
with BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO