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TVOne raided for false statement on Jokowi
As many as 40 supporters of the Jokowi volunteer team, Volunteers of Struggle for Democracy (Repdem), raided the office of the private television station TVOne in Jakarta on Wednesday to voice their objections over news coverage allegedly connecting the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI)
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s many as 40 supporters of the Jokowi volunteer team, Volunteers of Struggle for Democracy (Repdem), raided the office of the private television station TVOne in Jakarta on Wednesday to voice their objections over news coverage allegedly connecting the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
'We convey our aspirations and objections to TVOne over the libelous and insinuative information that it aired regarding the PDI-P,' Masinton Pasaribu, head of Repdem, the party's wing organization, said in his Twitter account, as quoted by Antara news agency on Thursday.
Masinton said that for Repdem, there was a need to voice such objections because the station's news coverage had stigmatized PDI-P by aligning it with the former PKI communist party. He added that such coverage amounted to libel and could not be tolerated.
'Libel and lies aired repeatedly can eventually be seen by the public as truth, while in fact, they are all fabrications. We are upholding a belief in press freedom by implementing democracy and we don't want that press freedom destroyed by these instances of libel,' said Masinton.
He added that TVOne's news coverage and communist stigmatization were a threat against democracy and press freedom.
'If such New Order-initiated stigma continues to be reproduced and tolerated, there will come an era in which any news coverage deemed not in line with the rulers' interests will be stigmatized as pro-communist,' said Masinton.
Earlier, via text messages, PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo criticized the TVOne news coverage as provocative, saying that the coverage, which cited no sources, had inflicted damage on his party
Tjahjo urged TVOne to immediately clarify the news coverage that accused the PDI-P as being an enemy of the Indonesian Army (TNI) that had supported ex-PKI members. (ebf)
