The discussions on social media now are mostly about the pandemic and how the government is handling it. More often than not, these discourses have burned bridges and made Twitter’s trend list. Some of these issues, however, are too serious to just brush off.
Just last weekend, I saw a Twitter thread being retweeted by many of my friends. It was about how Joshua Molo, the editor-in-chief of The Dawn, the University of the East’s official school publication, was allegedly forced to make a public apology after his former teacher Mrs. Jun Ainne Francisco threatened to file a cyber libel case against him for criticizing the Duterte administration’s negligence amid the pandemic.
College Editors Guild of PH condemns "blatant suppression" of democratic rights after the EIC of UE Dawn was forced to apologize over a Facebook post criticizing PRRD's handling of #COVID19. His ex-teachers allegedly accused him of cyber libel, complained to brgy. pic.twitter.com/XyQ6iLcByN
— Mike Navallo (@mikenavallo) April 5, 2020
In the extensive thread that details the incident, we could see different campus journalism groups and The Dawn condemning the injustice Molo experienced. They called Molo’s former teacher’s move oppressive and a “blatant suppression” of the student’s democratic right to freedom of speech.
One of the tweets under the thread shows screenshots of Molo’s Instagram stories which the teacher used against him as it contained him calling out their reactions to his post.
READ: Social media posts of Joshua Molo calling out reactions of former teachers to his post criticizing gov't handling of #COVID19 crisis. These became basis for threat to file cyber libel case. One of the teachers went to PNP Cybercrime Division. pic.twitter.com/RTTGCHVavA
— Mike Navallo (@mikenavallo) April 5, 2020
“I’m just doing my job as a journalist to render my opinion to the people and also, as a citizen, to somehow inform the people of what is happening right now. I feel like I was suppressed by these people,” Molo told ABS-CBN News. He shared that he was forced to post the apology video after he was summoned to their barangay hall where his former teacher asked for a blotter.
“I was asked either itutuloy nila ‘yung kaso or I will do a public apology. Since my family po cannot afford to have a lawyer and to counter the case, we don’t have the resources for that, I opted to do a public apology (I was asked if I would prefer to do a public apology so that they wouldn’t press charges. Since my family doesn’t have any resources to afford a lawyer to counter the case, I opted to do a public apology),” he admitted.
Aside from this, there has also been multiple instances wherein UP students are being red-tagged for airing out their concerns with how the government is functioning amid the crisis. The most notable one is of Twitter user Ang Dalubhasa’s experience with his relative tagging NBI and DOJ in his Facebook post.
Apart from being silenced, the youth (like those of the UP Manila student council) has also been restricted by some radical government supporters who spammed their public frequencies (for their efforts to aid the Philippine General Hospital).
As Albert Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Teachers are both mentors and role models to their students. Since they spend a great deal of time with teachers, students are likely to follow their footsteps and see them as an ideal figure.
If these teachers continue to use their seniority to silence the youth, their students might adopt the same mindset. This is a threat to our society’s future as it normalizes the idea that age has anything to do with the right to speak one’s mind. Aside from that, attempts to silence the youth are a threat to our democracy.
Freedom of speech is crucial now more than ever. Whether it be from the youth or elder, opinions shouldn’t be silenced. It’s inevitable for disagreements to arise in such discourses—which can be a good thing if only because it allows for education and encourages citizens to be more critical of dogma and prevailing ideas.
Hopefully authority figures would understand this and think twice before using their “power and influence” to silence the youth.
Art by Tricia Guevarra
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