Cyber Media News Coverage Guidelines
Freedom of speech,
freedom of expression and press freedom are rights protected by Pancasila state
ideology, the 1945 Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The existence of cyber media in Indonesia is part of freedom of speech, freedom
of expression and press freedom.
Cyber media have
special characteristics that require guidelines to ensure their professionalism
and that they fulfill their function, obligations and rights in compliance with
both Law No. 40/1999 on the press and the Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
For that reason, the
Press Council and a number of press organizations, cyber media editorial board
members and certain members of the public formulated the Cyber Media News
Coverage Guidelines as follows:
1.
Scope
·
Cyber media are any form of media that
use the internet and conduct journalistic activities, in accordance with the
Press Law and the Standards for Press Companies established by the Press
Council.
·
User-generated content is any content
created or published by users of cyber media, such as articles, pictures,
comments, audio and video files and other files uploaded and attached to the
cyber media, such as blogs, forums, readers’ or viewers’ comments and other
material.
2.
Verification and Fairness
·
In principle, each story has to be
verified.
·
News that may harm a particular party
should provide verification within the same news item to ensure accuracy and
fairness.
·
The provision in clause (a) above may be
waived, on condition that:
a. The
news contains information of public urgency;
b. The
original source of news is clearly identified, credible and competent;
c. The
source of verification cannot be reached for comment;
d. The
media outlet explains to readers that the news needs further verification, and
verification will be made as soon as possible. The explanation should be
included at the end of the same story, in parentheses and italicized.
· Upon
the publication of the news item in accordance with clause (c), the media must
continue efforts to verify the news, and once verification is obtained, it
should be listed as a news update with a link to the previous unverified news
item.
3.
User-generated Content
·
Cyber media outlets must announce the
terms and conditions of user-generated content, which should not violate Law
No. 40/1999 on the press and the Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The terms and
conditions should be easy to read and understand.
·
Cyber media outlets are obliged to
require each user to register and go through a log-in process to be able to
publish all forms of user-generated content. Provisions on the log-in procedure
shall be formulated further.
·
During registration, cyber media outlets
must require all users to give written affirmation that the user-generated
content:
a. Does
not contain lies or libel and is not sadistic or inappropriate;
b. Does
not contain prejudice or hatred toward certain ethnicity, religion, race or
societal group and does not encourage acts of violence;
c. Does
not discriminate on the basis of gender or language, and does not disrespect
the dignity of the weak, the poor or the mentally or physically disabled.
·
Cyber media outlets must exercise their
right to edit or delete user-generated content that violates point (c).
·
Cyber media outlets shall provide a
complaint mechanism for user-generated content deemed to violate the provisions
in point (c). Such mechanism must be placed in a visible place so that it is
easily accessible for users.
·
Cyber media outlets must edit, delete
and make any necessary corrections to user-generated content that is reported
to have violated the provisions in point (c) immediately and proportionally
within 48 hours after a report is received.
·
A cyber media outlet that has complied
with the provisions in points (a), (b), (c) and (f) is not responsible for
liabilities resulting from the publishing of the content that violates the
provisions in point (c).
·
A cyber media outlet shall be
responsible for user-generated content that has been reported if it does not
carry out the necessary actions within the required period as stipulated in
point (f).
4.
Clarification, Corrections and the Right
of Reply
·
Clarification and corrections must be
done when necessary and the right of reply honored in compliance with the Press
Law, the Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the Guidelines to the Right of Reply
established by the Press Council.
·
Clarification, corrections and/or the
right of reply message should be linked to the news to which the clarification,
correction or the right of reply is related.
·
The media outlet should post the time of
the publication of each clarification, correction or the right of reply
message.
·
If the corrected article is also
published by other cyber media outlets, then:
a. The
responsibility of the cyber media outlet that produced the article is limited
to the article published by its outlet or other media outlets under its
authority;
b. Correction
to the article carried out by the original cyber media outlet should also be
made by other outlets that republish the article;
c. If
the media outlets that republish the article from another cyber media do not
make the necessary corrections to the article after the original cyber media
outlet has, the republishing media will bear all the legal consequences arising
from the article on which corrections are not made.
·
In accordance with the Press Law, cyber
media outlets that do not honor the right of reply will be subject to a maximum
fine of Rp 500,000,000 (five hundred million rupiah).
5.
Retraction of News
·
A news article that has been published
cannot be retracted on reasons of censorship by any parties other than the editorial
board, unless it is related to prejudice and hatred toward ethnicity, religion,
race or societal group, on grounds of indecency, the future of a child,
traumatic experience of a victim or other considerations that shall be
determined by the Press Council.
·
Other cyber media outlets are obliged to
follow the retraction of the same news item that the original media outlet
retracted.
·
The retraction of news should be
accompanied with a public announcement on the reason for the retraction.
6.
Advertisements
·
Cyber media outlets must clearly
distinguish between news and advertisement.
·
Any news/article/content that is an
advertisement or paid content should carry the description
"advertorial", "advertisement", "ad",
"sponsored" or other words explaining that the news/article/content
is an advertisement.
7.
Copyright
Cyber
media outlets must respect copyrights as governed by other laws and
regulations.
8.
Inclusion of the Guidelines
A
cyber media outlet should include these Cyber Media News Coverage Guidelines in
a visible place on its website.
9.
Disputes
Any
dispute arising from the implementation of these Cyber Media News Coverage
Guidelines shall be resolved by the Press Council.
Jakarta,
Feb. 3, 2012
These
guidelines are signed by the Press Council and the press community in Jakarta
Source: The Press Council These guidelines have been translated from Indonesian
by The Jakarta Post.
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