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ewspapers and online news portals will survive until 2043 at least, despite the massive growth of social media, according to a senior journalist.

“Everyone can write what they want to write, while journalists must provide precise and true information. There are regulations binding them, so people will still rely on them for precision,” Antara deputy chief editor Akhmad Kusaeni said at a seminar held by the Alliance of Independent Journalists in Jakarta on Thursday.

The use of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter has significantly increased over the past few years, particularly in Indonesia. The number of Twitter users in Indonesia alone has reached 19.5 million, while the number of Facebook users has reached 43 million.

Although social media often spread information faster than news media websites could, Akhmad said, such information still had to be verified, which could only be done by journalists.

People using social media were always talking about new things, Akhmad said. “But they still have to go for newspaper websites for verification,” he said.

“Traditional media will survive at least until 2043,” Akhmad said, adding that social media carried word-of-mouth information while traditional media brought words of truth.

“The challenge for traditional media organizations is to provide more investigative stories that cannot be provided by social media,” he said.