Fake news

De Peiza lamented, “Social media has ruined my life.” She said after one person started a rumour it spread like wildfire to wrongly criminalise her, with online viewers sharing her photo and posting comments.

Inundated with phone calls from family and friends both home and overseas, De Peiza was moved to walk about her hometown to show she had not been held for the murders. “I have not eaten or slept since Friday when news spread that I was held for the murder. It is not a nice feeling.

I had to speak to my son’s teacher because I am afraid what this could do to him.” Even as she vows to seek legal advice, the country would indeed benefit from a statement by the Office of the Attorney General or a judicial ruling on one’s exposure to libel lawsuit for false statements made on social media.

While social media’s many attractions and advantages are surely altering the established model of traditional media, bogus stories such as De Peiza’s case illustrate the enduring need for integrity, credibility and reliability in the provision of news items.

In the recent United States presidential election, many wild claims were thrown about on social media by rival camps, while since then US President Donald Trump, whose television show, The Apprentice, had made him a household name, has now ironically sidestepped television news to instead communicate publicly via Twitter.

Public policy via tweet, meme and sound bite may seem trendy, but raise real concerns of veracity and deniability. Yes, since the foundation of print media the world has clearly moved on into a digital era with big benefits. Online news is instantaneous and so ahead of the 24-hour news cycle of a published newspaper, online platforms offer interactivity among viewers, and mobile devices such as smartphones supply news on the go. Certainly, this online technology is here to stay, with traditional media here and overseas adapting via websites and a social media presence.

Yet the plethora of unregulated online sites publishing every manner of allegation now surely gives even more impetus to traditional media as guardian of truth. We are a profession and are subject to laws, ethics, commercial realities, journalistic training and legacies of best practice and good taste.

Yes, a video clip of some scandalous street-level incident will be tweeted and shared a dozen times upon breaking, but the mainstream media with their decades of professionalism will be trusted by the population the following morning to confirm or debunk or otherwise explain the veracity of said social media splash.

This role was spelt out in a February story in the British Guardian by Jasper Jackson, titled “If newspapers won’t check viral stories, who will listen to them about fake news?” Likewise, a December 2016 Huffington Post story, “How to stop fake news and save newspapers,” advised media houses to weather the digital onslaught by giving their “imprimatur of truth and honesty” by information they publish. Even as the likes of Facebook and Le Monde set up units to weed out fake news websites, TT’s media houses likewise will do fact-checking and supply reliable news as an anchor amid this social media torrent of claims.