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Anti-hoax news network launched
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Scrabble letters spell hoax. (Shutterstock/File)
Journalists from major media outlets launched the Anti-Hoax Journalists Network on Friday, with top official endorsement.
The network has put together a team that will sift through daily news items. It has also introduced an app to help editors determine whether particular news or information is legitimate.
"We want national mainstream media to be clean and clear," said Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) chairman Margiono at the launch, which was attended by Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Kalla and President Joko Widodo both sit on the advisory board along with several Cabinet ministers. The presidium is filled with top media executives. Media activist Agus Sudibyo heads the national executive board. The network has branches in all 34 provinces.
In his remarks, Kalla said he had been a victim of a hoax on Friday morning, with news claiming that he had said money spent on flower boards for Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who lost his reelection bid, would be better spent on wheelchairs for the disabled.
"I never made that remark," Kalla said. "The only bunga [flower] I’m interested in is bunga bank [bank interest]," said Kalla, a businessman by background.
(Read also: Police to stamp "Hoax" on unreliable news online)
He said he did not follow the news closely, relying instead on his staff to alert him of news relevant to him, including Friday’s hoax.
"But President Jokowi follows the news closely, so watch what you report," he told the journalists present.
Kalla also suggested the network’s acronym, originally Jawah, standing for Jaringan Wartawan Anti Hoax, to Jawarah, which sounds like jawara, a term used to describe fearless men from Banten, West Java.
