Bogus martyr

“Andanar aptly rebutted Ressa saying that she is “under investigation” and not under attack by the government.

Fake news feeding the impunity myth on President Rody Duterte was exemplified by Rappler founder Maria Ressa’s spinning of yarn before the US primetime program 60 minutes.

The way it works is that the detractor of Rody would paint a dismal situation in the Philippines and the gullible newscaster who doesn’t know better would then be convinced to accept the falsehoods spread as reality.

In most instances, of course, like in the case of rights groups which are in league with the political opponents of Rody, the demonizations are part of an overall conspiracy.

60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker said in an interview which was apparently part of efforts to keep Ressa a hot item in the US expressed surprise over Ressa’s allegations of an assault on press freedom in the country.

Ressa in the 60 Minutes’ guesting alleged that reporting in the Philippines has become worse than being in a war zone.

“Journalist Maria Ressa is on a crusade. She is fighting in her home country of the Philippines to keep doing what she has done for more than three decades — report the news,” according to Whitaker.

Through the program, Ressa peddled his version of a dark world for journalists under Rody giving as an example her news website Rappler, which she said has reported on President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, and because of it, she alleged of being threatened with rape, imprisonment and even death.

Whitaker related that Ressa’s experience is “a marked difference” from the open press environment which he said he found when he first began covering the Philippines 30 years ago. At the time, he was CBS News’ Tokyo correspondent.

“The press kind of had free rein,” Whitaker said of the Philippines. “You could go right up to a politician. You could go to the courts. We had access to just about everybody, any place. I had not ever experienced a journalistic environment like that before.”

It is not hard to imagine what Ressa impressed on Whitaker to entirely influence his view when the reality is that nothing had actually changed and in fact, it has improved with the Freedom of Information policy as provided under an Executive Order of Rody.

What is contemptuous is that Ressa in trying to lift herself up as a “Joan of Arc” of Philippine media is bringing down the whole country by fostering an erroneous impression.

Whitaker recalled having accompanied former first lady Imelda Marcos on her return to the country from exile in the United States. Whitaker said he even went with her to the police station, where the press gathered just feet away as Marcos “performed for the cameras.”

The renowned host even expressed hope that “despite the current climate, unfettered journalism in the Philippines can return,” which was a false impression resulting from Ressa’s demagoguery.

“There is a spirit in the Philippines that can’t be snuffed out,” he said. “I really do believe that if there were another president there and he was not as forceful in his opposition to the press, that the raucous free-spirited press that I first saw there in the 90s, I think it would come roaring back,” he added.

All of the false information were propagated as a result of Ressa finding herself in trouble for violation of ownership rules on media entities under the Constitution and a cyberlibel complaint that a private businessman had filed on her, both of which she claimed have been instigated either by Rody or his administration.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar aptly rebutted Ressa saying that she is “under investigation” and not under attack by the government.

“Rappler and Ms. Ressa’s case is not an issue involving freedom of the press. This is an issue in violation of the Philippine laws which were acted upon by respective government agencies,” Andanar explained.

Ressa has been using the yellow template of whipping up international condemnation on Rody to counteract his overwhelming public support.

The only method effective against the popular president is to heap bigger lies over mountain of untruths in the hope to deceive those who don’t bother to look into the true situation in the country.