Freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press are the protected human rights of 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 so that it requires guidelines so that its management can be implemented professionally, fulfilling its functions, rights, and obligations in accordance with Law No. 40 of 1999 on Press and Journalistic Code of Ethics. For this reason, the Press Council together with press organizations, cyber media managers, and the public drafted the Following Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines:
1. Scope
a. Cyber Media is any form of media that uses internet rides and carries out journalistic activities, and meets the requirements of the Press Law and Press Company Standards set by the Press Council.
b. User Generated Content is any content created and/or published by users of cyber media, among others, articles, images, comments, sounds, videos and various forms of uploads attached to cyber media, such as blogs, forums, reader or audience comments, and other forms.
2. Verification and balance of news
a. In principle, every news must go through verification.
b. News that can harm others requires verification on the same news to meet the principles of accuracy and balance.
c. The terms in item (a) above are excluded, provided that:
1) The news actually contains an urgent public interest;
2) The first news source is a clearly identified, credible and competent source;
3) The subject of the news to be confirmed is unknown and or cannot be interviewed;
4) The media explained to the reader that the news still needs further verification which is sought in the shortest time. Explanations are loaded at the end of the same news, in parentheses and using italics.
d. After loading the news in accordance with item (c), the media must continue the verification effort, and after verification is obtained, the verification results are listed in the update news (update) with a link on the unverified news.
3. User Generated Content
a. Cyber media must include terms and conditions regarding User-Generated Content that do not conflict with Law No. 40, 1999 on the Press and the Code of Journalistic Ethics, which was placed clearly and clearly.
b. Cyber media requires each user to register for membership and log-in first to be able to publish all forms of User Generated Content. The terms regarding the log-in will be further regulated.
c. In the registration, cyber media requires users to give written consent that User-Generated Content is published:
1) Does not contain false, slanderous, sadistic and obscene content;
2) Does not contain content that contains prejudice and hatred related to ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA), and advocates acts of violence;
3) Does not contain discriminatory content on the basis of sex and language differences, and does not degrade the dignity of the weak, poor, sick, mentally handicapped, or physically handicapped.
d. Cyber media has absolute authority to edit or remove User-Generated Content as opposed to item (c).
E. Cyber media must provide a user-generated content complaint mechanism that is considered to violate the provisions in item (c). Such mechanisms should be provided in a place that is easily accessible to the user.
F. Cyber media shall edit, delete, and take corrective action for any User Generated Content reported and violate the terms of item (c), as soon as possible proportionately no later than 2 x 24 hours after the complaint is received.
g. Cyber media that have fulfilled the provisions of items (a), (b), (c), and (f) are not burdened with liability for problems arising from loading contents that violate the provisions of item (c).
h. Cyber media is responsible for user-generated content that is reported if it does not take corrective action after the deadline as stated in item (f).
4. Errors, Corrections, and Right of Reply
a. Errors, corrections, and right of reply refer to the Press Act, journalistic code of ethics, and the Code of Right of Answer established by the Press Council.
b. Errors, corrections and/or rights of responsibility must be linked to news that is corrected, corrected or given the right to answer.
c. In every news error, correction, and right of reply must be included the loading time of the error, correction, and or right of answer.
d. If a particular cyber media news is disseminated by other cyber media, then:
1) The responsibility of the newsmaker's cyber media is limited to news published in such cyber media or cyber media that are under its technical authority;
2) Correction of news made by a cyber media, must also be done by other cyber media that cites news from the corrected cyber media;
3) Media that disseminates news from a cyber media and does not make corrections to the news as carried out by the cyber media owner and or creator of the news, is fully responsible for all legal consequences of the news that is not corrected.
E. In accordance with the Press Law, cyber media that do not serve the right to answer can be sentenced to a criminal law fine of a maximum of Rp500,000,000 (Five hundred million rupiah).
5. News Retraction
a. News that has been published cannot be revoked for reasons of censorship from outside the editor, except related to sara issues, decency, the future of children, traumatic experiences of victims or based on other special considerations set by the Press Council.
b. Other cyber media are obliged to follow the retraction of news quotes from the original media that have been revoked.
c. The retraction of the news must be accompanied by the reason for the retraction and made public.
6. Ads
a. Cyber media must distinguish firmly between news products and advertising.
b. Any news/article/content that is an advertisement and or paid content must include an 'advertorial', 'advertisement', 'ads', 'sponsored', or other words that explain that the news/article/content is an advertisement.
7. Copyright
Cyber media must respect copyright as stipulated 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. Dispute
The final assessment of the dispute regarding the implementation of the Cyber Media Reporting Guidelines was completed 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).