Journalists’ eyes have been focused on Senate Bill #1492 filed by Sen. Joel Villanueva, drawn by committee hearings where PCOO Asst. Secretary Mocha Uson and other “famous” bloggers who allegedly peddle fake news testified.

Few have looked at House bill #6622 filed by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr.

Both bills seek to penalize fake news. The Senate bill is “an act to penalize malicious distribution of false news and other related violation.” The House bill is labeled “Anti-Fake News Act of 2017,” “an act prohibiting creation and distribution of fake news.” Continue Reading

Special presidential assistant Bong Go, testifying last Feb. 19 before the Senate committee, dramatized the erroneous concept of “fake news.”

“Fake news,” a.k.a. “false news” is fabricated content, something concocted, a piece of fiction, falsehood wrapped in some shred of fact.

Go said Rappler, the digital news site, and Inquirer, the print broadsheet, reported his alleged intervention in the choice of systems for the navy’s frigates ?- and, he stressed, they were fake news. Continue Reading

Jan. 24 was feast day of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. This May 13 is Vatican’s World Communication Day. And what had Pope Francis to say? 

Pope Francis’s message, contained in a document titled “The Truth Will Set Your Free: Fake News and Journalism for Peace” and released Wednesday, was inevitably about media — and fake news. Continue Reading

Jan. 24 was feast day of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. This May 13 is Vatican’s World Communication Day. And what had Pope Francis to say? 

Pope Francis’s message, contained in a document titled “The Truth Will Set Your Free: Fake News and Journalism for Peace” and released Wednesday, was inevitably about media — and fake news. Continue Reading

The existing law on “false news,” under Art. 154 of the Revised Penal Code does not define it. Publishing false news is punishable if it “may endanger the public order or cause damage to the interest or credit of the State.” Nothing about what “false news” is.

Senate Bill 1492, filed last July 21 by Sen. Joel Villanueva, like the penal code provision, merely describes the potential harm of false/fake news: (1) if it tends “to cause panic, division, chaos, violence or hate” or (2) if it “exhibits or tends to exhibit propaganda to blacken or discredit the reputation of a person…” Continue Reading

The existing law on “false news,” under Art. 154 of the Revised Penal Code does not define it. Publishing false news is punishable if it “may endanger the public order or cause damage to the interest or credit of the State.” Nothing about what “false news” is. 

Senate Bill 1492, filed last July 21 by Sen. Joel Villanueva, like the penal code provision, merely describes the potential harm of false/fake news: (1) if it tends “to cause panic, division, chaos, violence or hate” or (2) if it “exhibits or tends to exhibit propaganda to blacken or discredit the reputation of a person…” Continue Reading