Freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press is a human right protected by Pancasila, Constitution 1945, and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The existence of cyber media in Indonesia is also part of freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press.
Cyber media has a special character so it requires guidelines so that its management can be carried out professionally, fulfill the function, right, and its obligations in accordance with Law Number 40 Year 1999 regarding the Press and Journalistic Code of Ethics. For this reason, the Press Council together with press organizations, cyber media manager, and the public have prepared Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines as follows:
- Scope
Cyber Media is any form of media that uses the Internet and carries out journalistic activities, and fulfill the requirements of the Press Law and Press Company Standards set by the Press Council. User Generated Content (User Generated Content) is all content created and or published by cyber media users, among others, article, picture, comment, voice, videos and various forms of uploads attached to cyber media, like blogs, forum, reader or viewer comments, and other forms. - Verification and balance of news
a. In principle every news must be verified.
b. News that could harm other parties requires verification of the same news to meet the principles of accuracy and balance.
c. Provisions in item (a) above excluded, with conditions:
– News really contains urgent public interest;
– The first news source is a source whose identity is clearly stated, credible and competent;
– The whereabouts of the news subject that must be confirmed are unknown and/or cannot be interviewed;
– The media provides an explanation to readers that the news still requires further verification which will be attempted as soon as possible. The explanation is contained at the end of the same news, in brackets and in italics.
d. After loading the news according to the items (c), the media is obliged to continue verification efforts, and after verification is obtained, The verification results are included in the update news (update) with links to unverified news. - User Generated Content (User Generated Content)
a. Cyber media must include terms and conditions regarding User-Generated Content that do not conflict with Law No. 40 year 1999 regarding the Press and Journalistic Code of Ethics, which is placed brightly and clearly.
b. Cyber media requires every user to register for membership and carry out a log-in process first to be able to publish all forms of User Generated Content. Provisions regarding log-in will be regulated further.
c. In the registration, cyber media requires users to provide written consent for User Generated Content to be published:
- Do not contain lies, slander, sadistic and obscene;
– Does not contain content that contains prejudice and hatred related to ethnicity, religion, ras, and intergroup (SARA), as well as advocating acts of violence;
– Does not contain discriminatory content on the basis of gender and language differences, and not demeaning the weak, poor, pain, mental disability, or physical disability.
d. Cyber media has absolute authority to edit or delete User Generated Content that is contrary to the provisions (c). Cyber media is obliged to provide a complaint mechanism for User-Generated Content which is deemed to violate the provisions in the paragraph (c). Such mechanisms must be provided in a place that users can easily access.
e. Cyber media must edit, delete, and take corrective action for any User Generated Content that is reported and violates the provisions of the points (c), as soon as possible proportionally as late as possible 2 x 24 hours after the complaint is received.
f. Cyber media that has fulfilled the provisions in point (a), (b), (c), and (f) is not burdened with responsibility for problems caused by loading content that violates the provisions in the item (c).
g. Cyber media is responsible for reported User-Generated Content if it does not take corrective action after the time limit as stated in the point (f). - Error, Correct, and Right of Answer
a. Error, correct, and the right to reply refers to the Press Law, Journalism Code of Ethics, and Guidelines for the Right to Reply established by the Press Council.
b. Error, Corrections and/or the right to reply must be linked to the news being corrected, corrected or given the right to reply.
c. At each error message, correct, and the right of reply must be stated when the error is loaded, correct, and/or the right to reply.
d. If certain cyber media news is disseminated by other cyber media, for:
– The responsibility of news-making cyber media is limited to news published in that cyber media or cyber media that is under its technical authority;
– News correction carried out by a cyber media, This must also be done by other cyber media who quote news from the corrected cyber media;
– Media that disseminates news from a cyber media and does not make corrections to the news according to what the cyber media owner and/or creator of the news has done, is fully responsible for all legal consequences of news that is not corrected.
e. In accordance with the Press Law, Cyber media that does not provide the right of reply can be subject to criminal sanctions with a fine of up to IDR 500,000,000 (Five hundred million). - News Retraction
a. News that has been published cannot be withdrawn due to censorship reasons from outside editorial parties, except regarding SARA issues, morality, child's future, traumatic experience of the victim or based on other special considerations determined by the Press Council.
b. Other cyber media are obliged to follow the revocation of news excerpts from the original media that have been revoked.
c. Revocation of news must be accompanied by reasons for the revocation and announced to the public. - Advertisement
a. Cyber media must clearly distinguish between news products and advertising.
b. Every news/article/content that is an advertisement and/or paid content must include the statement "advertorial", "advertisement", “ads”, “sponsored”, or other words that explain that the news/article/content is an advertisement. - Copyright
Cyber media is obliged to respect copyright as regulated in applicable laws and regulations. - Inclusion of Guidelines
Cyber media must include these Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines in their media clearly and clearly. - Dispute
The final assessment of disputes regarding the implementation of the Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines is resolved by the Press Council.
Jakarta, 3 February 2012
(These guidelines were signed by the Press Council and the press community in Jakarta, 3 February 2012).
Source: Press Council
