MEDIA-CYBER WAR: MANILA- PTV to discipline social media team over ‘erroneous’ #DutertePalpak tweet

MANILA, Philippines — State-run broadcaster People’s Television said Wednesday it will sanction members of its social media team who were behind an “erroneous” tweet which used the hashtag #DutertePalpak.

“The management will certainly institute disciplinary actions against members of the social media team who are behind the erroneous posting,” PTV said in a statement. The publicly-funded network did not specifically say what sanctions would be meted out.

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PTV said the hashtag, which was used to criticize the Duterte administration’s pandemic response, was included in the tweet due to “predictive systems in the text entry phase and a failure to adequately review and screen the message that actually got posted.”

“PTV New Media deeply regrets the error and take (sic) full responsibility for the oversight,” it said further.

The verified Twitter account of PTV shared Tuesday an article on President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the government to provide free masks to the public with this caption: “President Rodrigo R. #dutertepalpak BTS reiterated his order to provide free masks for the public especially to those who cannot buy their own.”

The hashtag was among the top trends on Twitter Philippines the same night the tweet was posted.

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Past blunders

In the past, state media has been involved in numerous blunders ranging from the wrong use of logos to outrightly false claims.

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In May 2017, the Philippine News Agency used a photo from the Vietnam War in a story about the Marawi siege.

That same month, PNA posted an article falsely claiming that 95 nations in the 27th Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council were convinced that there were no extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

In August 2017, PNA posted an editorial from Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua criticizing the 2016 arbitral ruling that favored the Philippines and voided China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea.

It also ran a story on the Department of Labor and Employment using the logo of pineapple producer Dole Philippines.

In response to the string of errors, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar formed an editorial board for the state-run news service, only for more errors to crop up following its creation.

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