Yesterday, National Press Freedom Day, saw publishers, senior executives; and other top representatives of the country’s major media organizations, including this newspaper; academic institutions; and social media platforms, at a Panata Kontra (Pledge Against) Fake News covenant signing at GMA Network’s Studio 7 in Quezon City.

Convened by GMA Network, the event marked a partnership pledged to a “unified and unwavering commitment” in fighting against fake news and disinformation. This is an important undertaking as the country faces two crucial electoral exercises, the 2025 general elections in May, the results of which are expected to shape the outcome of the 2028 presidential elections.

The mid-term elections on 15 May 2025 will see all 318 seats in the House of Representatives and 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate contested to constitute the 20th Congress of the Philippines. Local elections will also be held for the executive and legislative branches in all provinces, cities, and municipalities.

In a country where winning an election is a matter of life and death, vigilance against the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news is paramount.

The forthcoming Philippine elections are a particularly critical time for media and the covenant-signing convened by GMA yesterday is an important step in bolstering efforts to ensure that media practitioners, whether in print and broadcast, and those that abound in social media are not only free from harm to report news and information, but that their reports are objectively facts-based.

Distinctions between misinformation, disinformation, and fake news must be made clear. While these are related, there are key differences. Misinformation is false information shared without intention to mislead; there might have been a misunderstanding or someone was not aware that the information he dished out to the public was inauthentic.

In contrast, disinformation is false information shared on purpose with deliberate intention to mislead. Fake news/information, meanwhile, is crafted to look legitimate. “With fake news, the intention to deceive, to outright lie, is high.”

“Examples are the use of photos and comments on social media and posting these along with text to make deliberately-designed fake news and information look genuine,” says Dr. Pedro Jeronimo, head of fact-checking research outfit, MediaTrust Lab,

The vile thing about fake news and disinformation, which is closely related to propaganda, is that once they find a public forum, they can be shared and spread unwittingly by people who believe in their authenticity and have no intention to deceive.

Disinformation as propaganda is what the public should be aware of. “Disinformation and propaganda are the spreading of information and ideas linked to power; they enhance or twist outright information in favor of a political actor wanting to gain power and distort facts to destroy his rival in an electoral contest.”

Propaganda also involves being selective about what information is shared with the public.

Who are the usual propagators of propaganda, or disinformation/fake news in general? There must be a persistent effort to discern between propaganda and objective information and trolls and malefactors who deliberately create fake news/information should be unmasked by journalists, responsible netizens, and enlightened social media users at all times.

That yesterday’s covenant signing against fake news was held on Press Freedom Day is significant amid indications that overall, press freedom in the Asia Pacific region is currently not exactly in an ideal state.

Press freedom in the region, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index for 2024 has “worsened as dictatorial governments tighten their hold” over news and information in their respective states.

RWB, the international NGO focused on safeguarding the right to freedom of information (FOI) and defending threatened journalists worldwide, ranks the Philippines 134th of 180 countries (Norway scores 1st, China and North Korea are in the bottom), sinking two places in its World Index.

Still, it should be noted that the country has hit its highest press freedom ranking in six years with the assumption to the presidency of Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who is considered much more “amiable” toward the press compared to his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte who, in 2021, has earned the inglorious distinction of being named a “press freedom predator” by the RWB.

The President, no matter that his electoral victory is perceived to have been boosted by persistent tweaking of facts portraying his father, Ferdinand Sr.’s martial rule regime as a “golden age,” has recognized disinformation as a grave problem.

At the International Conference of Information Commissioners in Pasay City on 20 June 2023, he vowed to safeguard FOI and the role it plays in dispelling disinformation. The President also announced a Media and Information Literacy Campaign even as he stressed that “we too recognize as a matter of principle that fake news should have no place in modern society.”

Whether these pronouncements by the President and other efforts to combat fake news, including GMA Network’s convening of the Panata Kontra Fake News covenant signing yesterday, would result in the reduction of disinformation in the coming elections and beyond, remains to be seen.