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  1. Feb 2022
    1. Some news outlets were allowed to operate, especially those that were owned by Marcos’ friends like Roberto Benedicto of the Kanlaon Broadcasting System and the Philippine Daily Express. According to the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC), 579 businesses were likewise “violently and illegally” taken over by the dictatorship.

      The dictatorship of Marcos brought upon many atrocities to our country and its attack on press freedom is only one of many. It is said that only news outlets that were owned by Marcos's foalies were allowed to operate meaning that whatever news were delivered by them were already censored by his administration. This meant that people did not have access to uncensored and unbiased information nor did they had the means to because those that attempted to were violently and illegally taken over by the dictatorship. The many ramifications of this censorship in press freedom led to many believing that the Marcos era of dictatorship was a golden era for the country, ignorant to the atrocities committed by the dictatorship. In the present, the media blackout back then has also led to many attempts to rewrite history but thankfully, our brave countrymen who fought for their lives to fight the censorship have succeeded in preserving the truth.

    1. The term fake news means “news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false” [1] designed to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts, events, and statements. It’s about information presented as news that is known by its promoter to be false based on facts that are demonstrably incorrect, or statements or events that verifiably did not happen.  Fake news “is fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but…lack(s) the news media’s editorial norms and processes for ensuring the accuracy and credibility of information” [2]. It overlaps with misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation (false information purposely spread to mislead people). The definition may seem a bit vague, but it’s important. People have used the term “fake news” to mean different things. Source: BBC News This definition eliminates unintentional reporting mistakes, rumors that don’t originate from a news article, suspicions/interpretations/conspiracy theories, satire, and biased (but not false) reports. It also leaves out sweeping indictments of mainstream media. The President likes to call “fake news” the reporting of uncomplimentary things that seem distracting or insignificant, which cast him in a negative light in the context of successes that he thinks should be made more prominent.

      The term fake news has been thrown around lightly by people today and it is our responsibility to know its formal definition or what it entails. Among the many contexts it is used to today, it has assumed a political cloak wherein it is used to incite emotions rather than provide facts, and provide biased reports. This is misleading because it is more related to information disorders like misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation as the term 'fake news' is not limited to only news but to information in general. It has only taken on the form of mainstream media that is why people are mistaken of the term in general.