Claim: Philippines going down in World Press Freedom Index due to distrust of media
Rating: FALSE
This video claims that the reason for the Philippines’ decline in the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is due to growing distrust in the mainstream media.
This is False.
The Philippines has seen steady decline in its ranking under the World Press Freedom Index since 2017.
However, while there is reason to believe distrust in mainstream media, the WPFI is not based on trust of the media, but rather, on other factors, including the orchestrated distrust to them.
The index’s criteria include pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, transparency, infrastructural support for the media, and legislation that concerns the media.
The index measures how free media is to perform its duties independently, not how trusted it is by the populace.
Finally, we are constantly going down the WPF Index because of fake news like this.