US think tank wary of China-funded training for Filipino journalists

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 12:37 p.m.) — China has been providing some 75 countries, including the Philippines, media training that is not based on traditional democratic principles of press freedom, according to a report from rights advocacy group Freedom House.

In its January 2020 report titled "Beijing's Global Megaphone: The Expansion of Chinese Communist Party Media Influence since 2017", the US government-funded Freedom House noted that Filipino media officials and prominent journalists visited China for two weeks in May 2018.

They visited China to learn about "new media development " and "socialist journalism with Chinese characteristics."

Freedom House said the seminars "serve as an avenue for the Chinese government to promote an alternative approach to journalism and news management that is not based on traditional democratic principles regarding press freedom."

The Chinese government has been inviting journalists to parts of China even prior to the warmer relations between Manila and Beijing under the Duterte administration.

Other countries like the US and Japan also sponsor reporting trips and trainings seminars for Filipino journalists.

Training seminars in Beijing

According to a May 2018 report by state-run Philippine News Agency, the Philippines sent personnel of "the News and Information Bureau-Philippine News Agency, People's Television, the Philippine Information Agency, Presidential Communications Operations Office and mainstream news outlets" to the training in Beijing.

The report also mentioned that the contingent was "the lastest batch of participants"

"I assure you, you will learn. I myself was impressed with what they have. Kung anong meron sila (Whatever they have), buy in as much as you can," Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar is quoted as saying in the PNA article.

A PNA story on a similar workshop in Beijing in May 2019 quotes Liu Ying, vice president of China National Radio and Television Administration's Research and Training Institute, as saying the seminar would "build an extensive communication platform for media professionals in China and the Philippines, actively promote the in-depth media convergence and promote the common development of the industry of the two countries."

The 30-member Philippine delegation included personnel from the PCOO, PNA, Radio Television Malacañang, Philippine Information Agency, People’s Television Network, Inc. and the Bureau of Communication Services.

Journalists from Sun.Star in Cebu, iOrbitNews in Pampanga, Manila Times and Pulso ng Makabagong Caviteño were also in the contingent, PNA reported.

China's aid to state-run media

In April 2018, the Philippine government secured P140.8 million worth of aid from the Chinese government to improve the country's state media.

Andanar then announced that there would be a media exchange program with China.

In June 2018, the Chinese Embassy in Manila announced that state-run television network PTV-4 will air Chinese TV shows dubbed in Tagalog for Filipinos to "better understand China, its people, their long history, their rich culture, their daily lives, their endeavor and their dreams."

"China's aid and investment in the media sector has tended to favor state-owned outlets over independent, private competitors, nudging local information landscapes toward a Chinese model in which progovernment voices dominate and dissent is effectively suppressed ," the report read.

Freedom House also noted that Beijing's training for journalists, editor and media official from various countries entice them to report positively China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

"The Chinese government’s propaganda and censorship efforts appear to be relatively effective at improving or retaining a positive image for China—and for Xi Jinping personally—in the developing world," Freedom House said, citing Pew Research Center results from 2018 and 2019 that indicate positive public views of China in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

"Xi was especially well regarded in Russia, the Philippines, Tunisia, Nigeria, and Kenya in 2018, and fewer respondents in those countries acknowledged the Chinese government’s poor human rights," Freedom House said.

The training also promote an alternative approach to journalism and news management with socialist characteristics.

Citing a 2019 report by the Open Technology Fund, Freedom House noted that at least 75 countries had sent officials or reporters to China for trainings on journalism or information control over the past five years.

The Freedom House special report also noted that Chinese social media application WeChat has been expanding in non-Chinese speakers such as the Philippines and India.

The report said the expansion of Chinese social media firms create new avenues for the CCP to "potentially influence news distribution outside China."

There have also been reports that WeChat staff delete politically sensitive information posted by foreign users or shut down theur accounts.

"There is evidence that WeChat is systemically monitoring conversations of users outside China and flagging politically sensitive content for some form of scrutiny, even when transmission of the messages is not hindered ," the report read.