UP lawyer calls for fair treatment between social media news sites and mainstream

Atty. Trixie Cruz Angeles and her Facebook post, photo compiled from Facebook

President Rodrigo Duterte supporter and now Presidential Communications and Operations Office social media strategist Atty Trixie Cruz Angeles asked for equal treatment for social media news sites and mainstream media, after the controversy of the accreditation of news site Rappler.

This was after PCCO Asec Mocha Uson on Tuesday asked her superior, Secretary Martin Andanar, to clarify the membership of online news site Rappler with the Malacañang Press Corps, a guild of reporters covering the Palace and President Rodrigo Duterte.



Through a letter she posted online, she said that Rappler, founded by former ABS-CBN News chief Maria Ressa, “has no counterpart print or broadcast arm” and is therefore considered a social media entity which should be subjected to the accreditation process handled by her office.

In the letter was written, “In view of the foregoing, I respectfully request that Rappler be reclassified and moved from Malacañang Press Corp. (sic) to Social Media."

Several reactions opposing the request and calling it absurd surfaced.

Thus followed Angeles' post which read, "Remember when PCOO came up with a policy on blogger accreditation? Ang daming hanash! kesyo walang editors ang socmed, di gaya ng mainstream, na kesyo bakit ganun lang ang requirements, na kesyo hindi naman sila news."

She then compared it with the present situation.



"So pag socmed policy, pwede pakialaman ng mainstream. Pero pag nag kwestyon ang socmed sa tinaguriang mainstream, ukol sa classification, hihiyaw na ng, "press freedom! regulation!" kulang nalang mag pa cry cry pa ng, "Inaapi kami!" Narinig na namin yang pa-victim na yan, ha. Di na nga bumebenta eh."

She alsos aid that regulation is different from reclassification.

And thus if Rappler is reclassified, their freedom of speech will not be hindered.

"Paano naman ma repress ang press freedom pag reclassify ang Rappler, aber? Pipigilan ba sila mag blog? Magsulat? Magpublish? Magsalita? May mga pa-Facebook post pa nga kayo, napigilan ba kayo? Na report ba? Na take down ba?" she said.

"Pero pag mainstream, pinipigilan ang pag accredit sa socmed kasi -- aminin na -- ayaw na andun ang bloggers sa press briefings. Sa tutoo lang, ang gusto ng socmed, fair treatment. Yung bang equal lang. Kaso gusto ng kabila mas equal sila kaysa sa socmed," she added.

Source: Luminous by Trixie Cruz-Angeles

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