Freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press are fundamental human rights protected by Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. The existence of cyber media in Indonesia is likewise part of the exercise of freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press.
Cyber media has distinct characteristics that require specific guidelines to ensure that it is managed professionally and fulfills its functions, rights, and obligations in accordance with Law No. 40 of 1999 on the Press and the Journalistic Code of Ethics. Accordingly, the Press Council, together with press organizations, cyber media operators, and the public, has established the following Guidelines for Cyber Media Reporting:
1. Scope
Cyber Media refers to any form of media that uses the internet as its platform and conducts journalistic activities while meeting the requirements of the Press Law and the Press Company Standards established by the Press Council.
User-Generated Content refers to any content created and/or published by users of cyber media, including articles, images, comments, audio, videos, and other forms of content submitted to cyber media platforms, such as blogs, forums, reader or viewer comments, and other forms of user submissions.
2. News Verification and Balance
As a general principle, every news report must undergo verification.
News that may cause harm to another party must be verified in order to uphold the principles of accuracy and balance.
The above requirement may be exempted under the following circumstances:
- The news genuinely concerns an urgent matter of public interest;
- The initial source of the news is clearly identified and is credible and competent;
- The subject of the news who should be contacted for confirmation cannot be located and/or cannot be interviewed;
- The media outlet informs readers that the report still requires further verification and that efforts to obtain such verification will be made as soon as possible. This explanation must be placed at the end of the same report, in parentheses and in italics;
- After publishing the report under the circumstances described above, the media outlet must continue its efforts to verify the information. Once verification has been obtained, the results must be published in an updated report, with a link to the original unverified report.
3. User-Generated Content
Cyber media must clearly and prominently publish terms and conditions governing User-Generated Content, provided that such terms and conditions do not conflict with Law No. 40 of 1999 on the Press or the Journalistic Code of Ethics.
Cyber media requires every user to register for membership and log in before publishing any form of User-Generated Content. Further provisions concerning the login process shall be regulated separately.
As part of the registration process, users must provide written consent that the User-Generated Content they publish:
- Does not contain false, defamatory, sadistic, or obscene content;
- Does not contain prejudice or hatred based on ethnicity, religion, race, or intergroup relations (SARA), or advocate acts of violence;
- Does not contain discriminatory content based on gender or language, or demean the dignity of people who are weak, poor, ill, mentally disabled, or physically disabled.
Cyber media has full authority to edit or remove User-Generated Content that violates the provisions above.
Cyber media must provide an accessible mechanism for reporting User-Generated Content that is considered to violate these provisions.
Cyber media must edit, remove, or otherwise take corrective action regarding reported User-Generated Content that violates these provisions as soon as reasonably possible and proportionately, and no later than 2 × 24 hours after receiving the complaint.
Cyber media that has fulfilled the applicable requirements shall not be held responsible for problems arising from the publication of User-Generated Content that violates these provisions.
Cyber media shall be responsible for reported User-Generated Content if it fails to take corrective action within the time limit specified above.
4. Corrections and Right of Reply
Corrections, rectifications, and the right of reply shall be governed by the Press Law, the Journalistic Code of Ethics, and the Guidelines on the Right of Reply established by the Press Council.
Any correction, rectification, or right of reply must be linked to the original news report to which it relates.
Each correction, rectification, or right of reply must clearly state the time at which it was published.
If a news report published by one cyber media outlet is republished or disseminated by another cyber media outlet:
- The responsibility of the media outlet that produced the original report is limited to the report published by that outlet or by cyber media outlets under its technical authority;
- Any correction made by the original media outlet must also be made by other cyber media outlets that quoted the corrected report;
- A media outlet that republishes or disseminates a report from another cyber media outlet and fails to make the corresponding correction shall bear full legal responsibility for the consequences arising from the uncorrected report;
- In accordance with the Press Law, a cyber media outlet that fails to provide a right of reply may be subject to criminal sanctions in the form of a fine of up to Rp500,000,000 (five hundred million rupiah).
5. News Retraction
Published news may not be retracted solely because of censorship or pressure from parties outside the editorial team, except in matters involving ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup relations (SARA), public decency, the future of children, the traumatic experiences of victims, or other specific considerations determined by the Press Council.
Other cyber media outlets must follow the retraction of quotations from a news report when the original media outlet has retracted that report.
Any news retraction must state the reason for the retraction and be announced to the public.
6. Advertising
Cyber media must clearly distinguish editorial content from advertising.
Any news report, article, or other content that constitutes an advertisement and/or paid content must be clearly identified as “advertorial,” “advertisement,” “ads,” “sponsored,” or by other wording that clearly indicates that the content is paid promotional material.
7. Copyright
Cyber media must respect copyright in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
8. Publication of the Guidelines
Cyber media must publish these Guidelines for Cyber Media Reporting on its platform in a clear and prominent manner.
9. Disputes
Final determination of disputes concerning the implementation of these Guidelines for Cyber Media Reporting shall be made by the Press Council.
Jakarta, February 3, 2012
These Guidelines were signed by the Press Council and the Indonesian press community in Jakarta on February 3, 2012.
