Traditional Media Should Help Indonesians Combat Fake News: Jokowi
February 9, 2017 | 8:15 pm
Jakarta. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said mainstream news media should share some of the burden of educating Indonesians so they can distinguish between actual news and fake news that has mushroomed on social media.
Inhis National Press Day speech in Ambon, Maluku, on Thursday (09/02), Jokowi said media should serve up the truth to the public, not hoaxes or fake news.
"Mainstream media should help with clarifying facts, shifting the dregs of falsehood left by social media. Stop the people from getting carried away with sharing fake news on social media," Jokowi said.
The president said in the digital era everyone is a reporter. Everyone has the ability to share whatever he or she feels or experiences.
But one of the consequences has been, according to Jokowi, a social media that is flooded with fake news and hoaxes.
Some people use social media to draw attention to themselves, but others have a more insidious intent: to spread false information that may threaten the unity of the nation, Jokowi said.
"But I have faith we will all eventually learn how to handle hoaxes better. One day we won't have to hear people complain about social media being riddled with falsehood, we will be able to sort truth from fiction ourselves," Jokowi said.
Nevertheless, Jokowi encouraged the public to start checking on facts and stop sharing hoax stories on social media.
National Press Day
During the same ceremony, Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) Chairman Margiono said National Press Day provided a good opportunity to evaluate the role of the media in educating the public.
"We should award the good media, and sanction the bad ones," Margiono said.
The PWI chairman said Indonesians are also concerned that some media magnates have also crossed over to politics.
"According to the Press Law, there is no restriction on media leaders becoming political leaders as well," Margiono pointed out.
He also announced that the PWI and the Press Council have formed the Network of Anti-Hoax Journalists, or Jawah, comprising high-profile figures in the media industry, to try to deal with the proliferation of fake news in the country.
Margiono himself is of the opinion that fake news is part and parcel of the social media age. "The media’s task is to counter these hoaxes with the truth," he said.
Fake journalists
Also on National Press Day, journalists in Jayapura, Papua, held a peaceful rally in the city’s Abepura Square.
Local journalists gathered at the square to deliver speeches and distribute pamphlets explaining the country's laws on protecting reporters.
The journalists also railed against "fake" reporters, or "envelope journalists" — an allusion to the envelopes of money these people receive as bribes — whose number has been growing in Indonesia, especially in Papua.
They also pointed out that many journalists in Papua are still facing threat and intimidation for covering "sensitive" stories.
"We reject all violence against journalists. We are the fighters of information, and we are protected by the law," Ichad, a local journalist, said in his speech.
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