The Philippine News Agency on Tuesday apologized for its recent mistakes, which resulted in netizens and groups accusing the government-run agency of spreading fake news.
“While there have been lapses in our judgment, it has never been the policy of PNA to tolerate erroneous report, and it has certainly never been our intention to sow misinformation, much less share what is termed nowadays as ‘fake news,’” PNA said in a statement.
READ: NUJP slams gov’t news agency for uploading ‘fake news’
It admitted that it used a photograph taken during the Vietnam War for a report on the ongoing Marawi Crisis.
“On May 27, we ran a report titled, ‘Urban warfare a challenge for soldiers in Marawi,’ with a photo of a soldier on patrol. On Monday, it came to our attention that the photo, a scene during the Vietnam War, was sourced from Wikimedia Commons,” it explained.
“Upon learning of the error, we immediately took the photo down but not before it was shared by our readers and subscribers.”
It also mentioned the May 15 article “95 states convinced there are no EJKs in PHL.”
“DILG Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing later denied saying some of the information in the PNA report,” PNA said. “As soon as we learned of the error, we held the May 15 report and interviewed Asec. Densing so we could issue an accurate report thus, the story titled, ‘PHL’s human rights situation commended at UPR.’”
“We regret that these mistakes have cast doubt on our integrity as a news agency,” PNA said, adding that “erring personnel” have already been “dealt with.”
PNA said it is also reviewing its procedures on news reporting. KS /atm/rga