Toned-down policies will be accorded to so-called “social media practitioners” once they get accredited to cover Malacañang, a Palace official said Thursday—with no prohibitions set if they wanted to peddle fake news or use foul language.
In efforts to keep up with a more “populist” and “open” policy for netizens to cover Palace activities, Communications Assistant Secretary Michael Kristian Ablan said that they have loosened up some stringent requirements they’ve implemented, on the premise that they would “behave.”
“We had to delete the requirement, limitation regarding the use of profanity because it might encroach on their freedom of speech,” said Ablan.
“The presumption is those who will be accredited are law-abiding Filipino citizens who will not use profanity in their articles, who will not use fake news,” he added. “There’s no need to expressly state that you’re not supposed to use profanity in any of your articles.”
In his Department Order No. 15, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar ordered for an interim ‘social media practitioner accreditation system’ that will be handled by the PCOO’s Social Media Office under former sex guru-turned-blogger, Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson—with the only requirements be at least 18 years old and have more than 5,000 followers in any social media platform.
A “Social Media Practitioner” refers to “a person that maintains a publicly-accessible social media page, blog, or website, which generates content and whose principle advocacy is the regular dissemination of original new and/or opinion of interest.”
Ablan said that Uson had asked the PCOO to lower its standards to accommodate more netizens in the Palace, such as lowering requirements for “daily” original content to “regular” original content.
“We tried to abide by the United Nations mininum standards but with discussions with Assistant Secretary Uson and her staff, they opted for a more populist, open accreditiaton process,” he said.
To apply for accreditation, qualified persons need to file their applications at the Social Media Office at 2nd Floor, New Executive, Building, J.P. Laurel St., Malacañang Palace, San Miguel, Manila.
Accreditation, however, is on a per event/activity only, which is valid for single use, unless expressly specified. They however, should seek clearance first from the Presidential Security Group (PSG), which handles Duterte’s security.
The PCOO may “withdraw, cancel or suspend” the accreditation, on grounds of: Abuse of rights and privileges extended by PCOO; and put his/her accreditation to improper use.