Online Report Supports Distorted Narrative on the Media

Ambassador Jan Top Christensen | CMFR file photo

JEERS TO news.ABS-CBN.com for a report that focused on the misleading statements of a single source, and ignored others as well as the current threats to the Philippine press.

A story on the website reported the remarks by the Ambassador of Denmark, Jan Top Christensen, quoting him without discernment. Christensen said that some of the Philippine media have been “systematically negative” in reporting on government. According to the report, Christensen attributed this “negativism” to the “lack of ethical standards and professionalism” in the Philippine media.

CMFR, which monitors media performance, has noted that the Philippine press has never been as tame and restrained in its criticism of government as it is today in its coverage of the Duterte administration. It has religiously reported what administration officials say, including the speeches and statements of President Duterte, often without providing any diversity or opposition to these official views. It has also noted that only a few of the news organizations have countered with critical coverage when the situation has called for it, such as the thousands of suspects killed in the course of Duterte’s war on drugs

The report did not mention what amounted to a rebuttal of the Ambassador’s claims in the same forum. Assistant Secretary Lila Shahani, secretary-general of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, addressed the audience right after Christensen. She said that “these are perilous times” and described the many threats to the press in the Philippines from the current administration.

“All over the world, leaders are denouncing media organizations and journalists from their offices of power. Genuine quality reporting is being dismissed as fake news for purely agenda-driven reasons, and many leaders obfuscate and lie outright in situations which, because of their positions, journalists must report,” Shahani said. She recognized the “steadfast advocates of press freedom and symbols of a long fight for democracy” in the room.

Not a word of her speech was included in the story. Excluding her views in the report created the impression that the diplomat’s remarks were not questioned or countered in the forum, legitimizing what was a not so diplomatic scolding of the Philippine press.

When the media themselves report without discernment narratives that are contrary to what is really going on, they are in effect helping their audiences get a distorted understanding of reality—and that is what the news.ABS-CBN.com report did.