The National Press Club has protested the partnership forged by COMELEC and Rappler.
NPC — The National Press Club has protested the partnership forged by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and Rappler, saying that it’s “unacceptable to most Filipinos.”
On Thursday, COMELEC signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Rappler in a bid to promote voter awareness and to fight disinformation during the election season.
Key personalities present during the MOA signing ceremony were Acting Comelec Chairperson Soccoro B. Inting, COMELEC commissioners, and Rappler CEO and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa.
In a letter addressed to Inting, NPC president Paul M. Gutierrez said that they’re registering their protest because they would also want to “see and experience a clean, credible honest and transparent election the result of which may well decide the country’s future in the coming years”.
“But your choice of Rappler, certainly, is a step in the wrong direction,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez went on by saying that Rappler has “a spotty record” when it comes to the “dissemination of ‘truthful information’” considering the news organization’s “record of gross bias in its reportage that resulted to its current legal woes”.
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It was also raised in the said letter that Rapper’s current legal woes “arise first, from its being a foreign-funded media outfit, contrary to what is provided for in our Constitution.”
As such, Gutierrez noted that Ressa “has been convicted of criminal libel by a Manila court for biased reporting”.
“We can go on and on citing reasons why we object to your MOA with Rappler. But our central message is, the credibility of the coming election that we all aspire for is not enhanced by your choice,” said Gutierrez.
COMELEC and Rappler, meanwhile, have no reaction yet on the matter as of press time.
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