MANILA, Philippines – Over 50 media organizations and over 50 journalists have come together to issue a statement about the anti-disinformation bills currently being debated in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The statement was initiated by the Movement for Media Safety PH, a group advocating for the rights and protection of media practitioners in the country. Rappler, among the signatories, is publishing the statement in full, below.
The pending anti-disinformation bills confuse the symptoms with the disease. Instead of addressing the political, economic, and technological systems that manufacture and profit from coordinated information manipulation, they place the burden on individual expression and expand government authority over speech. This threatens democratic freedoms while leaving the real drivers of disinformation largely untouched.
As institutions and individuals whose work depends on verifying facts, exposing falsehoods, and informing the public, we have every reason to support effective measures against disinformation. Journalists are among those who experience firsthand the damage that disinformation inflicts on democratic discourse and public trust. We therefore recognize the urgency of confronting this grave challenge.
