THE UNIVERSITY has joined forces with newsrooms and other schools in an advocacy campaign against fake news and disinformation led by GMA Network.
GMA Network’s “Panata Kontra Fake News” (pledge to combat fake news) was launched on Aug. 30, coinciding with the celebration of National Press Freedom Day in the Philippines, with the signing of agreements and a pledge with over 60 partner organizations.
In his speech, GMA Network Chairman Felipe Gozon emphasized the severity of the disinformation problem in the Philippines, particularly online, and the urgent need for a “massive undertaking to fight it.”
“Not a day goes by without false information spreading like wildfire in an ecosystem where checks and balances are outpaced by distortion, deception, and speed,” Gozon said.
“Panata Kontra Fake News is a continuation of a longstanding crusade to safeguard the integrity of discourse,” he added.
Emmanuel Batulan, executive assistant of the Office of the Secretary General, told the Varsitarian that the partnership entailed UST adhering to the Panata Kontra Fake News campaign and promoting its cause through online platforms and on campus.
UST may also help organize future masterclasses on combating fake news by providing venues or resource persons.
Partners in GMA Network’s campaign include news organizations such as the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, Manila Times, Rappler, and PressONE.PH, and groups like the Philippine Press Institute, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Various schools nationwide, including member-institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the University of the Philippines, and De La Salle University, are also part of the campaign.
The Commission on Elections is likewise part of the initiative.
Fake news is viewed as a problem in the Philippines by an overwhelming majority of Filipinos, or 90 percent of respondents in a 2022 nationwide survey.
While false information is not a novel concern, Gozon noted that fake news started to become “pervasive through the ages” in 2016.
“Fake news is both dangerous and harmful, but the truth is glorious and useful,” he said. “Truth is the very mechanism by which we build a better nation. It is not always the most viral, but it remains the best story to tell.”
This academic year, the UST Department of Journalism, which also signed GMA Network’s “Panata,” introduced a new elective course titled “Digital Literacy, Fact-Checking, and Verification” to journalism and legal management freshmen.
Envisioned to be offered to students in other academic units in the future, the elective course tackles digital literacy strategies and methods of verifying information and debunking falsehoods. Marco Luis D. Beech
