Freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press are human rights protected by Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, 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 that requires guidelines so that its management can be carried out professionally, fulfilling its functions, rights, and obligations according to Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press and the Journalistic Code of Ethics. For this reason, the Press Council together with press organizations, cyber media managers, and the community have prepared the Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines as follows:
1. Scope
- Cyber Media is any form of media that uses the internet as a medium and carries out journalistic activities, and meets the requirements of the Press Law and Press Company Standards set by the Press Council.
- User Generated Content is any content created and/or published by cyber media users, including articles, images, comments, audio, videos and various forms of uploads attached to cyber media, such as blogs, forums, reader or viewer comments, and other forms.
2. Verification and balance of news
- In principle, every news must be verified.
- News that may be detrimental to other parties requires verification of the same news to meet the principles of accuracy and balance.
- The provisions in point (a) above are excluded, provided that:
- The news truly contains urgent public interest;
- The first news source is a source whose identity is clearly stated, credible and competent;
- The subject of the news that needs to be confirmed is unknown and/or cannot be interviewed;
- The media provides an explanation to the reader that the news still requires further verification which will be attempted as soon as possible. The explanation is included at the end of the same news, in brackets and using italics.
- After publishing news in accordance with point (c), the media is obliged to continue verification efforts, and after verification is obtained, the verification results are included in the updated news with a link to the news that has not been verified.
3. User Generated Content
- Cyber media must include terms and conditions regarding User-Generated Content that do not conflict with Law No. 40 of 1999 concerning the Press and the Journalistic Code of Ethics, which are placed in a clear and obvious manner.
- Cyber media requires every user to register for membership and log-in first to be able to publish all forms of User-Generated Content. Provisions regarding log-in will be regulated further.
- In this registration, cyber media requires users to provide written consent that the User Generated Content published:
- Does not contain false, slanderous, sadistic and obscene content;
- Does not contain content that contains prejudice and hatred related to ethnicity, religion, race and inter-group (SARA), and encourages acts of violence;
- Does not contain discriminatory content based on gender and language differences, and does not degrade the dignity of the weak, poor, sick, mentally or physically disabled.
- Cyber media has absolute authority to edit or delete User Generated Content that conflicts with point (c).
- Cyber media must provide a complaint mechanism for User-Generated Content that is deemed to violate the provisions in point (c). The mechanism must be provided in a place that is easily accessible to users.
- Cyber media are required to edit, delete and take corrective action on any User-Generated Content that is reported and violates the provisions of point (c), as soon as possible in a proportional manner, no later than 2 x 24 hours after the complaint is received.
- Cyber media that have fulfilled the provisions in points (a), (b), (c), and (f) are not burdened with responsibility for problems arising from the publication of content that violates the provisions in point (c).
- Cyber media are responsible for reported User Generated Content if they do not take corrective action within the time limit as stated in point (f).
4. Errata, Corrections and Right of Reply
- Errata, corrections, and the right to reply refer to the Press Law, the Journalistic Code of Ethics, and the Right to Reply Guidelines established by the Press Council.
- Errata, corrections and/or the right to reply must be linked to the news that is being errata, corrected or to which the right to reply has been given.
- In every news item containing an errata, correction, and right of reply, the time of publication of the errata, correction, and/or right of reply must be stated.
- If certain cyber media news is disseminated by other cyber media, then:
- The responsibility of the cyber media that produces the news is limited to the news published on the cyber media or cyber media that is under its technical authority;
- News corrections made by a cyber media outlet must also be made by other cyber media outlets that quote news from the cyber media outlet that made the correction;
- Media that disseminate news from a cyber media and do not make corrections to the news as made by the cyber media owner and/or creator of the news, are fully responsible for all legal consequences of the news that they did not correct.
- In accordance with the Press Law, cyber media that do not provide the right of reply can be subject to criminal sanctions in the form of a maximum fine of IDR 500,000,000 (five hundred million rupiah).
5. News Retraction
- News that has been published cannot be withdrawn for reasons of censorship from parties outside the editorial team, except in relation to issues of SARA, morality, the future of children, traumatic experiences of victims or based on other special considerations determined by the Press Council.
- Other cyber media are required to follow the retraction of news quotes from the original media that have been retracted.
- Revocation of news must be accompanied by the reasons for the revocation and announced to the public.
6. Advertisement
- Cyber media must clearly distinguish between news products and advertising.
- 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.
7. Copyright
Cyber media are required to respect copyright as regulated in applicable laws and regulations.
8. Inclusion of Guidelines
Cyber media are required to include these Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines in their media in a clear and transparent manner.
9. Disputes
The final assessment of disputes regarding the implementation of these Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines will be resolved by the Press Council.
Jakarta, February 3, 2012
(This guideline was signed by the Press Council and the press community in Jakarta, February 3, 2012).