SUMMARY
On Wednesday, June 26, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo delivered the keynote address at the East-West Center’s 2024 International Media Conference, which Manila hosted for the first time.
The conference is held once every two years and brings together journalists from the United States, Asia, and the Pacific to discuss key regional issues and challenges facing the media. This year’s iteration focused on the “Future of Facts.”
Manalo’s speech touches on the role of journalists in a world polluted by “alternate realities” that, he says, “sometimes drown out the truth and adversely affect the public discourse.” He also uses the platform to dismiss the “false narrative” that the West Philippine Sea is “merely a stage for Great Power rivalry in the region.” He gives the …