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Indonesian government, press council to block non-credible news portals
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The Communication and Information Ministry has blocked 11 Islamic websites deemed to have spread questionable ethnic, religious, racial and social group (SARA) sentiments. (shutterstock.com/File)
T
he Communications and Information Ministry's director general for applications and information, Samuel A. Pangerapan, said his institution would block news portals that violate the Press Law and other regulations.
“We [will] work together with the Press Council in the near future. All websites claiming themselves to be news portals but failing to declare their company name, company structure, legal entity and address will be banned, according to the Press Law," Samuel said as quoted by Antara on Wednesday.
Samuel asserted this step was crucial to ensure the role of media as the fourth estate of democracy.
"[This measure] is also meant to prevent the spread of hoaxes," he said, adding the public needed to trust news provided by media running in compliance with journalistic principles aside from non-credible sources.
He said a team would be set up to monitor questionable news portals.
Citing data from the Press Council, Samuel added that currently 40,000 news portals are operating in Indonesia.
By December 2016, the ministry has reportedly blocked 11 sites: voa-islam.com, nahimunkar.com, kiblat.net, bisyarah.com, dakwahtangerang.com, islampos.com, suaranews.com, izzamedia.com, gensyiah.com, muqawamah.com, and abuzubair.net. (dmr)
