Journalists from major media outlets launched the Anti-Hoax Journalists Network on Friday, with a ringing endorsement from various officials
ournalists from major media outlets launched the Anti-Hoax Journalists Network on Friday, with a ringing endorsement from various officials.
The network has put together a team that will sift through the news that flows through every day and introduce an app to help editors determine whether a particular news story or piece of information is legitimate or a hoax.
“We want the national mainstream media to be clean and clear,” said Margiono, the chairman of the Indonesian Association of Journalists (PWI), at the launch alongside Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Kalla and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo both sit on the advisory board along with several Cabinet ministers. The Presidium is filled with top media executives.
In his remarks, Kalla said he was the victim of a hoax on Friday morning with a news story going viral claiming that the vice president had said that the money spent on the flower boards for Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who recently lost his reelection bid, would be better spent on wheelchairs for the disabled.
“I never made those remarks,” Kalla said. He said he did not follow the news closely, relying instead on his staff to alert him to important news, including Friday’s alleged hoax.
“But the President follows the news closely. So watch what you report,” he told the journalists present at the event.
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