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Indonesia's Press Council has drawn up a set of recommended guidelines aimed at helping journalists avoid legal pitfalls when posting news items on various new media platforms.

Bekti Nugroho, a council member, said the guidelines were drafted in part after online media practitioners asked for a set of standards by which they could operate without falling foul of libel and defamation laws.

“This set of guidelines is essential because it stresses that the characteristics of traditional media reporting and new media reporting are different,” he said.

One of the main areas of concern in new media reporting, which covers news Web sites, blogs and social media, is the tendency for some writers not to verify their stories or seek independent confirmation, he said. This, he added, is a trade-off for getting the news posted to the Internet as quickly as possible.

Bekti said this oversight often resulted in aggrieved parties seeking to use their right of response — such as a letter to the editor in the context of print media — to address inaccurate claims.

“However, this right of response is often regarded as unsatisfactory and a lawsuit ensues,” he said.

He said the Press Council expected that the guidelines, which have been released in limited numbers for evaluation, would help improve the quality of cybermedia.

“We also hope this contributes to improving the professionalism of cybermedia practitioners,” he said.

The council began drafting the guidelines, now compiled in the form of a manual, in mid-2010 in response to increasing complaints from the public about online news reports that were either inaccurate or unverified, as well as the posting of user comments that were deemed insulting or obscene.

“This is a journalistic solution to what are journalistic problems,” Bekti said.

The guidelines also call on media practitioners to clearly label advertorials or articles paid for by advertisers as such, so as not to mislead readers.

Another point that the guidelines highlight is that Web site managers must be held responsible for ensuring that user-generated content, such as text comments or images, are not offensive or libelous.

Agus Sudibyo, a Press Council member, said that under the guidelines, cybermedia practitioners would be obliged to edit, delete or otherwise amend any comments posted on their site within 48 hours of receiving a complaint about the comments in question.

“Cybermedia practitioners must provide a mechanism on their sites whereby users can flag or report offending user-generated comments, and this mechanism must be easily accessible on the page,” he said.

The guidelines also oblige those posting user-generated content to fill out an online form stating that their content is not defamatory in any way, discriminatory or obscene.

“But users must also be made aware that they may not post offensive or discriminatory comments,” Bekti said.

He added that although the guidelines were clear, the manual did not lay out punishments for those failing to comply.

“The prescribed punishments are already found in the journalistic code of ethics, because these guidelines are derived from that code,” he said.

The Press Council says it will officially release the guidelines in full early next year, pending approval from the cybermedia community in the country.