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 and therefore requires guidelines so that its management can be carried out professionally, fulfilling its functions, rights and obligations in accordance with Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press and the Journalism Code of Ethics. For this reason, the Press Council together with press organizations, cyber media managers and the public have prepared the following Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines:
1. Scope of Cyber Media is all forms of media that use the Internet and carry out journalistic activities, and fulfill the requirements of the Press Law and Press Company Standards set by the Press Council. User Generated Content is all content created and/or published by cyber media users, including articles, images, comments, sounds, videos and various forms of uploads attached to cyber media, such as blogs, forums, reader comments. or viewers, and other forms.
2. 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. The provisions in point (a) above are excluded, provided that:
1. News truly contains urgent public interest;
2. The first news source is a source whose identity is clearly stated, credible and competent;
3. The whereabouts of the news subject that must be confirmed are unknown and/or cannot be interviewed;
4. 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 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 unverified news.
3. User Generated Content
a. Cyber media is required to 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 is placed clearly 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 give written consent that the User-Generated Content published:
1. Does not contain false, slanderous, sadistic and obscene content;
2. Do not contain content that contains prejudice and hatred related to ethnicity, religion, race and intergroup (SARA), as well as encouraging acts of violence;
3. Does not contain discriminatory content on the basis of differences in gender or language, and does not demean the dignity of the weak, poor, sick, mentally disabled or physically disabled.
d. Cyber media has absolute authority to edit or delete User Generated Content that is contrary to point (c). Cyber media is obliged to provide a complaint mechanism for User-Generated Content which is deemed to violate the provisions in point (c). Such mechanisms must be provided in a place that users can easily access.
e. Cyber media is obliged to edit, delete and take corrective action for any reported User-Generated Content that violates the provisions of point (c), as soon as possible proportionally, no later than 2 x 24 hours after the complaint is received.
f. Cyber media that have complied with the provisions in points (a), (b), (c), and (f) are not responsible for problems caused by posting content that violates the provisions in point (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 point (f).
4. Errata, Corrections, and Right of Reply
a. Errata, corrections and the right to reply refer to the Press Law, Journalism Code of Ethics and Guidelines for the Right to Reply established by the Press Council.
b. Errata, corrections and/or the right of reply must be linked to the news being rectified, corrected or given the right of reply.
c. In every report on errata, corrections and the right to reply, the time of publication of the errata, correction and/or right of reply must be stated.
d. If certain cyber media news is disseminated by other cyber media, then:
1. The responsibility of cyber media that produces news is limited to news published in that cyber media or cyber media that is under its technical authority;
2. Correction of news carried out by a cyber media must also be carried out by other cyber media which quotes the corrected news from the cyber media;
3. Media that disseminate news from a cyber media and do not make corrections to the news according to those carried out by the cyber media owner and/or creator of the news, are fully responsible for all legal consequences of the news that they do not correct.
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 rupiah).
5. Retraction of News
a. News that has been published cannot be withdrawn for reasons of censorship from parties outside the editorial team, unless it is related to issues of SARA, decency, the future of children, traumatic experiences of victims 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.
6. Advertising
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 information “advertorial”, “advertisement”, “ads”, “sponsored”, or other words that explain that the news/article/content is an advertisement.
7. Copyright Cyber media is obliged to respect copyright as regulated in applicable laws and regulations.
8. Inclusion of Guidelines Cyber media must include these Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines in their media clearly and clearly.
9. Disputes 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).