President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered state media to highlight in regular updates how the Philippines is doing better than other countries in its COVID-19 response.
According to a leaked Presidential Communications Operations Office memo, state media agencies are to cite global data "specifically to convey to the public that the Philippines is faring better than many other countries in addressing the pandemic."
Virginia Arcilla-Agtay, head of the PCOO's News and Information Bureau, confirmed the existence of the memo and said there was nothing wrong with "amplifying" facts that would put the government’s pandemic response in a good light.
"Rather than to proliferate fear, uncertainty, disinformation, and fake news, [Agtay] said the PCOO aims to convey 'positive messages' and 'favorable news' to make people trust and to work with the government in fighting COVID-19," state-run Philippine News Agency reports.
That the PCOO had to issue the order at all is the real surprise, panelists at a forum organized by the Philippine Press Institute said, with UP Journalism professor Danilo Arao calling the practice an open secret in government media.
The memorandum was released as the tighter quarantine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces is extended until at least May 14 and as many have turned to community pantries—volunteer-run food banks—that were put up to fill gaps in government aid.
The government, after its attempt to link the pantries to communist rebels failed to stick, has issued guidelines to make sure people lined up at the pantries follow pandemic protocols.
It has also ordered the police to put up similar pantries and feeding programs.
Not a new tack
The government trying to control the narrative on COVID-19 response isn't new and had been happening even before the memorandum was issued.
Rappler notes that "attempts to whitewash COVID-19 statistics through interpretation are seen all over the government's pandemic communications strategy" and that some of the claims, including those by the president's spokesperson, failed fact checks.
Some claims that Agtay made in her statement on the order to "amplify" facts were also found to be misleading.
She claimed, for example, "that based on data from Johns Hopkins University, the Philippines has a low daily case count per million, even if the Philippines is the second-highest in Southeast Asia based on this metric, following Malaysia."
"They're very, very concerned about controlling the narrative because they know they're very vulnerable," Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde, a former journalist, said at the PPI forum, adding that the state has "precisely the offices or government-run media machinery" to do it.
Referencing the PCOO's content-sharing and training arrangements with Chinese and Russian media, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manny Mogato said it shouldn't be a surprise that state media will produce propaganda.
"They need the propaganda, they'll really do that," he says, making the work of independent media and regaining public trust in that work even more important.
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Inquirer columnist John Nery said community pantries have highlighted failures in government response and have led to the PCOO order and the attempt to red-tag the pantries.
"This particular government has proven through its track record that they have very dangerous policies that have to be disguised through disinformation... we are swimming in a sea of disinformation controlled by the government," he said.
Not only in the Philippines
The PCOO could, in the spirit of “amplifying facts,” point to attempts by governments in other countries to control the narrative.
India, which one doctor pointed out in a TV interview is doing worse than the Philippines, has “arrested questioning journalists, and, most recently, demanded that social-media platforms including Facebook and Twitter delete posts critical of the authorities, ostensibly as part of the fight against the virus.”
As an aside, India’s prime minister also:
“imposed a brutal shutdown—one that largely hurt the poorest and most vulnerable—without consulting the nation’s top scientists, yet did not use the time to build up the country’s health-care infrastructure; his administration offered little in the way of support for those who lost their job or income as a result of restrictions; and rather than taking advantage of low case counts in prior months, his government offered an air of triumphalism…”
In Russia, Reporters Without Borders says in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index, “the major TV channels continue to inundate viewers with propaganda [and] the climate has become very oppressive for those who question the new patriotic and neo-conservative discourse, or just try to maintain quality journalism.”
The government there has also clamped down on social media “as the authorities have criticized social media platforms that have been used to bring tens of thousands of people into the streets across Russia this year to demand the release of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.”
Bloomberg’s Balance of Power newsletter notes that “[f]rom Turkey to Venezuela, Singapore and Myanmar, the desire by governments to dominate public discourse is strong, and the pandemic has only reinforced this as rumors threaten to derail virus control measures and vaccination campaigns.”
That these attempts are happening around the world and are done more vigorously than in the Philippines provides little comfort nor does knowing that India and Brazil are worse off in this pandemic.
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