According to a recent press release, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary and the Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office of the Kingdom of Thailand, signed the pact at the Government House.
announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Office of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Public Relations Office President of the Republic of the Philippines.
The MoU aims to boost collaboration on Information and Mass Communication Cooperation.
In a media interview, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office noted that the signing a memorandum of the understanding on information and mass communication cooperation today makes clear the that the two parties seek to cooperate by facilitating production and reporting between each other.
Moreover, the two sides pledged to exchange information and data that may be useful to both countries.
In 2017, the President of the Republic of the Philippines made an official visit to Thailand wherein Thailand and the Philippines recognised the importance of information and mass media information exchange.
The two leaders discussed the issue of fake news and how best to manage the threat of the spread of misinformation; an issue which is prevalent in both regions. They, therefore, noted the importance of collaborating to exchange information and solve the issue of fake news – which often finds its strongest foothold in homogenous online groups on social media platforms and forums.
Moreover, when the Philippines served as ASEAN chairman, the Minister for Public Relations Office and The President of the Republic of the Philippines both brought forth the idea that the ASEAN Member States must cooperate to efficiently and effectively deal with counterfeit news issues.
At the ASEAN summit in Singapore last year, all parties that attended became more aware of this problem. Thailand as the ASEAN Chairman this year will use the ASEAN Information and Information Ministerial Meeting as a forum to discuss ways to solve fake news.
Recently, the Minister for the Office of the Prime Minister travelled to Singapore to study the guidelines for resolving counterfeit news and apply them to Thailand.
Now, the Thai government is willing to send officials to the Philippines to study the structure of public relations agencies and exchange guidelines in the region to help come up with ideas for how to solve fake news problems.
On the other end, the Philippines is working to create an international office within ASEAN. With important offices located in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, which will serve as the centre of international media in the region and will bolster the exchange of information on the issue.
Another press release noted in his speech at the ceremony, the PCOO Secretary said that technology has allowed for faster dissemination of information through media and other platforms, adding that, thus, it is a vital, as ASEAN continues to evolve and its members strengthen their partnership, for the nations to share the information with each other.
The PCOO Secretary also stated that the information relayed through the various forms of media has allowed the public to be updated on developments around the world.
The Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office of the Kingdom of Thailand stated cited continued technological innovations as the main factor for faster dissemination of information. There is a clear need for both Thailand and the Philippines to maximise the potential benefits for greater information exchange and media coordination that suddenly opened up with the signing of the MoU.
