Cyber Media Guidelines

Press Council Regulations

Freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of the press are human rights protected by the Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The existence of cyber media in Indonesia is also part of the 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 public have drawn up the Guidelines for Cyber Media Reporting as follows:

1. Scope

Cyber Media is all forms of media that use the internet and carry out journalistic activities, and meet the requirements of the Press Law and Press Company Standards stipulated by the Press Council.
User Generated Content is all content created and/or published by cyber media users, including articles, pictures, comments, voices, videos and various forms of uploads attached to cyber media, such as blogs, forums, reader comments. or viewers, and other forms.

2. News verification and balance

In principle every news must be verified.
News that can harm 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:

  • News really contains an urgent public interest;
  • The first news source is a source that is clearly identified, 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 is attempted as soon as possible. Explanations are contained at the end of the same news, in brackets and in italics.
  • After publishing the news according to point (c), the media must continue the verification efforts, and after verification is obtained, the verification results are included in the updated news with a link to the unverified news.

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 Journalistic Code of Ethics, which is placed in a clear and clear manner.

Cyber media requires each user to register for membership and perform a log-in process first to be able to publish all forms of User Generated Content. Provisions regarding log-in will be further regulated.

In this registration, cyber media requires users to give written approval that User-Generated Content published:

  • Does not contain lies, slander, sadism and obscenity;
  • 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 on the basis of differences in gender and language, and does not demean the weak, poor, sick, mentally or physically disabled.

Cyber media has absolute authority to edit or delete User Generated Content that is contrary to point (c).

Cyber media must provide a complaint mechanism for User Generated Content which is deemed to have violated the provisions in point (c). The mechanism should be provided in a place easily accessible to users.

Cyber media must edit, delete, and take corrective actions for any User Generated Content that is reported and violates the provisions of point (c), as soon as possible proportionally no later than 2 x 24 hours after the complaint is received.

Cyber media that has complied with the provisions in points (a), (b), (c), and (f) is not burdened with responsibility for problems caused by loading content that violates the provisions in point (c).

Cyber media is responsible for User Generated Content that is reported if it does not take corrective action after the time limit referred to in point (f).

3. Errors, Corrections, and Right of Reply
  • Corrections, corrections, and the right of reply refer to the Press Law, the Journalistic Code of Ethics, and the Guidelines for the Right to Reply stipulated by the Press Council.
    Corrections, corrections and or the right of reply must be linked to the news which has been corrected, corrected or given the right of reply. In every report of corrections, corrections and right of reply, it is obligatory to include the time of loading of said corrections, corrections and or right of reply. If certain cyber media news is disseminated by other cyber media, then:
  • The responsibility of the cyber media producing news is limited to the news published in the cyber media or the cyber media under its technical authority;
  • Corrections to news carried out by a cyber media must also be carried out by other cyber media quoting news from the corrected cyber media;
  • Media that disseminate news from a cyber media and do not make corrections to the news according to what is done by the cyber media that owns and or creates the news, is fully responsible for all legal consequences of news that is not corrected.
  • In accordance with the Press Law, cyber media that does not serve the right of reply can be subject to criminal penalties of a maximum fine of IDR 500,000,000 (Five hundred million rupiah).
4. News Revocation

News that has been published cannot be revoked for reasons of censorship from outside the editorial team, except for issues related to SARA, decency, the future of children, traumatic experiences of victims or based on other special considerations determined by the Press Council.

Other cyber media must follow the revocation of news excerpts from the original media that have been revoked.

Revocation of news must be accompanied by reasons for revocation and announced to the public.

5. Advertising

Cyber media must clearly distinguish between news products and advertisements.
Every news/article/content that constitutes an advertisement and/or paid content must include a statement .advertorial., .advertisement, .ads., .sponsored., or other words explaining that the news/article/content is an advertisement.

6. Copyright

Cyber media must respect copyright as stipulated in the applicable laws and regulations.

7. Inclusion of Guidelines

Cyber media must clearly and clearly state the Guidelines for Reporting on Cyber Media in their media.

8. Dispute

The final assessment of the dispute regarding the implementation of the Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines was resolved by the Press Council.

Jakarta, 3 February 2012
(This guideline was signed by the Press Council and the press community in Jakarta, 3 February 2012).