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Press Council to produce special logo for reliable news outlets
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Crowdsourcing-based app Turn Back Hoax was designed to gather false information and hoaxes on the internet. (Turn Back Hoax/File)
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s part of the effort to counter the mounting circulation of fake news, the Press Council will provide a special logo for mainstream media outlets to confirm that they are reliable sources of information for the public.
Press Council chief Yosep “Stanley” Adi Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the council planned to officially submit the special logo to 18 verified media groups on Feb. 9 this year but would continue to verify more media publications throughout the year in an effort to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy media.
Stanley explained that readers would later be able to see the logo on the first page of all verified newspapers and also online news websites. “This is to return authority to reliable mainstream media outlets and their professional journalists,” he said.
He assured the public that the special logo would protect online media platforms in particular from being blocked by the government following heightened national efforts to fight the circulation of fake news.
(Read also: Jokowi declares fight against disseminators of fake news)
The Press Council recorded 2,000 newspapers and magazines as circulating in the public but only 354 of them were verified. Meanwhile, of all 43,300 online media platforms that are recorded as operating in the country, reportedly only around 240 are reliable.
“We are re-verifying this data in order to frequently check if those that were previously confirmed as trustworthy are still reliable. This is to protect the public from misleading news as well as professional and trusted media from the circulation of fake news that will also jeopardize their work,” Stanley emphasized.
