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In a similar vein is the planned “review” of print, broadcast, and online media representation in the coverage of the Ofce of the President. Exactly what that review will consist of has not been revealed, but that it is even being planned suggests that only those journalists from “friendly” media organizations could be permitted to cover Malacañang.
The apparent discrimination in favor of the three networks was explained away as a prior commitment to grant them the interviews they had supposedly requested during the campaign period. But online news site Rappler revealed that other media organizations had been misled by an advisory that said that the so-called “BBM Media Center” where the press conference was held would be closed on that date.
But in addition to these infirmities is the media network PCOO runs. Its antecedents go back to the Marcos Senior dictatorship, which created the government media and communication system that succeeding administrations have inherited. The system provided information about government, but also limited the capacity of the privately owned media organizations that were then allowed to function to monitor regime policies and activities.
Through Executive Order No. 4, the Benigno Aquino III administration reorganized the Office of the Press Secretary and created the PCOO in 2010. EO 4 declared the need for a public information system that would inform the public what the Executive Branch is doing. But the same EO emphasized the dissemination of Presidential “achievements,” which, during both the Aquino III and Duterte administrations, led to the exclusion of “bad news” from the information the system was providing.