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 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 Cyber ​​Media Reporting Guidelines as follows:

Scope

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

News verification and balance

  1. In principle every news must be verified.
  2. News that can harm other parties requires verification of the same news to meet the principles of accuracy and balance.
  3. The provisions in point (a) above are excluded, provided that:
    1. News really contains an urgent public interest;
    2. The first news source is a source that is clearly identified, 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 is attempted as soon as possible. Explanations are contained at the end of the same news, in brackets and in italics.
  4. 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.

News verification and balance

  1. In principle every news must be verified.
  2. News that can harm other parties requires verification of the same news to meet the principles of accuracy and balance.
  3. The provisions in point (a) above are excluded, provided that:
    1. News really contains an urgent public interest;
    2. The first news source is a source that is clearly identified, 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 is attempted as soon as possible. Explanations are contained at the end of the same news, in brackets and in italics.
  4. 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.

Copyright

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

Inclusion of Guidelines

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

Dispute

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

Port Harcourt, 27 August 2023
(This guideline was signed by the Cybercrime Act, enacted in 2015, Anti-Social Media Bill, introduced in 2019, and Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) in 2019.