President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged journalists to tap into their experience to gain the advantage in the battle against fake news and “crazy conspiracy theories.”

Disinformation is becoming fiercer, particularly with the technological leap in the use of artificial intelligence.

Marcos renewed his commitment to fighting fake news and asked the media to join him in the crusade.

For him, fake news is “one big problem” that needs to be addressed by the government with the help of mainstream media.

“We have many, many ideas. But what we need to work together on is the fake news,” he said.

Marcos indicated that journalists take time in understanding all issues, researching backgrounds, building resource persons and contacts.

“You do this for what? — 10 years. You learn many things, right? And so, what you write, what you release, comes from that experience, comes from that knowledge, always comes from that wisdom that you have already acquired over that long period,” he said.

“But now, suddenly, it is your writings, your opinions are equal in importance and credibility to these crazy conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact. And that’s why we really have to work on this very, very hard because it has taken too much of the space,” he added.

Fake news take space

For Marcos, the rampant disinformation has taken up too much space, confusing the public and further misinforming them. 

“In the beginning, we thought it was funny; it was entertaining, but now it’s become damaging. And that is something that we have to be concerned [about],” he pointed out.

“And that’s why we say we need your help. The government needs the help of all the media to explain to people that you have to be more discerning about what you read and believe than what you take on. And that is the challenge, I think, for us in the future,” he added.