Initials of Crime Suspect

" The news media are not required to write the initials of crime suspects "

This was revealed today by Executive Editor of Kompas Newspaper Budiman Tanudiredja when he testified as witness in the trial of Civil Lawsuit filed by Raymond Teddy at the District Court of West Jakarta.

Budiman was quoted by Kompas as saying that based on the Journalistic Code of Ethic Article 5, the media are only required to write initials of crime suspects in Decency cases, and when the suspect is an under age child.

Budiman further stated that the report was made based on the information provided by the Public Relation officer of the Police.

Kompas Newspaper, Kompas.com and RCTI have been sued by Raymond Teddy, for reporting his arrest by the Police on charges of Illegal Gambling at the Hotel Sultan on December 2008.

Beside the three media, Raymond also filed similar lawsuits against four other media i.e Suara Pembaruan, Republika, Seputar Indonesia, and Detik.com at three different District Court i.e in Central Jakarta, South Jakarta and East Jakarta.

The above information is important for news reporters as well as bloggers.

Balibo

The Indonesian Film Censor Board (LSF) has banned the screening of Australian movie " Balibo " in Indonesia.

According to LSF, the movie was banned because it tells about the killing of five Australian journalists by Indonesian soldiers during the invasion of Dili, East Timor, in 1975. This is contradictory to the Indonesian government’s version of the journalists being killed in a crossfire.

However, the banning of the movie does not mean that Indonesians cannot watch it. On the contrary, many people are watching the pirate DVDs of the movie which can be found easily in Jakarta, although not in cinemas but at their own premises.

Further, the movie became much more popular after a retired Colonel in the Indonesian Army suddenly appeared and informed journalists that he is a witness to the killings of the 5 journalists by the Indonesian Army.

For detailed media reports on the above, please click here and here.

Considering the above, I felt that the banning of the movie would not be effective in the present age of transparency whereby lots of information including movies can be easily accessed through the internet.
Rather then banning, it would be better if the Indonesian government make a movie that tells about its own version of the Balibo incident.

Bloggers & Journalists

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