Issue Date
2023
Abstract
President Ferdinand Marcos, after declaring martial law in 1972, immediately issued arrest orders against journalists critical of his government and ordered the closure of newspapers, radio, and television networks. An alternative press from the media, student, religious, and workers’ sectors, however, was surreptitiously formed. President Marcos called them “mosquito press” because just like the mosquitos, they can be a major annoyance but not too deadly. The mosquito press fought tooth and nail against the curtailing of press freedom upon gaining composure from arrests, tortures, salvaging, and killings. They became the source of information from the ground. They resisted the misinformation that the crony publications whom Marcos’s friends, relatives, and those powers- that be churned out. A leeway, the political analysts call “democratic space,” was somehow seen in 1986 with the ouster of Marcos from power. This, however, would take a different turn at the onset of the internet, paving the way for some interest groups to disseminate wrong information through digital influencers and establish troll farms whose primary objective is to cleanse the dirty image of martial law and pave the way for the return of the Marcoses to power. This paid army of digital influencers, advertising agencies, and trolls became the tools for distorting history at the turn of the 21st century.
Source or Periodical Title
UP Los Baños Journal
Volume
21
Issue
3
Page
6-22
Document Type
Article
College
College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
Language
English
Subject
martial law, historical distortion, Bagong Lipunan, mosquito press, trolls
Recommended Citation
Melencio, Gloria E., "The fall and rise of the Marcoses: from mosquito press to troll farms" (2023). Journal Article. 6007.
https://www.ukdr.uplb.edu.ph/journal-articles/6007