Understanding the South China Sea standoff through the Filipino Media

The Philippines media ABS-CBN published an article by Yi Ping, Peking University School of Law outlining the reasons on why the "Philippines lacks the legal ground to go to the International tribunal".

Many Filipinos are hoping for a negotiated win-win solution with China. Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte believes that: "the joint venture between China and the Philippines on the contested areas could have been mutually acceptable but now, it is marred by the perceived entry of the US through its oil exploration firms."

Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, a columnist, while condemning the Aquino government and the American military, also believes that the disputes can be settled through "mutual respect and benefit."

An article in the Beijing Review points out that, China's restraints in South China Sea resulted in "small countries bullying a big country." The author also points out that, "Prior to 1997, the Philippines had no objection to the Chinese Government's exercise of sovereign administration, development and exploitation of the Huangyan Island. Instead, it expressed on many occasions that the island is outside the scope of the Philippine territory. On official Philippine maps published in 1981 and 1984, the island is also marked outside Philippines territorial limits."

Conclusion

It is unfortunately that the truth can never be found in the mainstream Western media. So much hatred, negativity, misunderstanding and conflicts across the world could have been avoided if people were not deprived the right to know the truth. The illegal invasion of Iraq could have been stopped if the voices of the UN weapon inspector Scott Ritter, and Senior Australian Intelligence Officer Andrew Wilkie could be heard internationally through the Western media with the kind of zeal they used against China before the invasion. Millions of lives in peril could have been avoided and millions in misery and displacement could also have been avoided if the media could uphold the ethics of Journalism before the illegal war. Censorship may be a crime but selective reporting with the intention to mislead the public is a crime worse than censorship.

Despite the American territory's claims on another end of the world such as the so-called American Samoa, and the British claims on Falkland Island (12,700km or 7,920 miles away from UK), their media seems to use the distance between China and the disputed island to dismiss China claims. Just a couple of examples, in the UK, BBC put the distance from China at 500 miles; The Guardian at 1,200 km; whereas, in the U.S., Fox News put the distance at 700 miles; and Foreign Policy use 48 hours for the ship from China to arrive as a way to describe the distance. These coordinated behaviour across the mainstream western media appears to fall in line with my earlier analysis: 'How Rumour Journalism works'.