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Red-Faced Journalists Fall for April Fool’s Day Hoax
April 01, 2009

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A rogue journalist from the online news portal Okezone cashed in on the ongoing criticism of Abdul Hafiz Anshary, chairman of the embattled General Elections Commission, or KPU, to leave even seasoned journalists red-faced on April Fool’s Day.

“The chairman of the KPU will resign this afternoon at 2 p.m. as he cannot stand the pressure of the voter list problem,” Insaf Albert Tarigan, a political reporter stationed at the KPU, wrote on Facebook, a popular social networking site, on Wednesday.

The joke was quickly reprinted on the Facebook status update of another journalist from the Seputar Indonesia daily newspaper. “The elections will not be delayed, but the head of the KPU will resign,” she wrote. She also sent text messages to other journalists.

Responding to the “breaking news,” at least three television stations deployed mobile TV trucks to the KPU office. A journalist called her news editor to demand space on Wednesday’s front page, while others staked out Abdul’s office hoping for details before the “official announcement.”

The success of the practical joke, however, meant that Insaf could not see it through until midday. “I felt guilty and I didn’t have the heart to see my trusting friends fall for my very convincing story,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

Upon learning that it was a joke, the journalists only had time to yell the briefest of insults before calling their editors to explain.

The journalist from Seputar Indonesia, who was the first to spread the joke, summed up the mood: “I will hate April Fool’s Day jokes for the rest of my life.”