Beware of frauds posing as journalists, warn police

JAKARTA (JP): Police warned on Thursday of increasing incidents being reported of people purporting to be journalists asking money from sources or blackmailing officials and businesspeople.

Secretary to the City Police Public Relation Department Adj. Comr. Alex Mandalika said that police could not arrest the impostors without first receiving a report or complaint from the victims.

"The Criminal Code Procedures stipulate that police investigators could not arrest a person posing as a journalist without any report from the victim," Alex said.

He admitted that people pseudo-journalists have also been "operating" within city police headquarters, including the driving license division.

City Police received one report from a group claiming to be journalists, called the Gabungan Wartawan Indonesia (the Alliance of Indonesian Journalists) several months ago.

The group reportedly demanded money, threatening to reveal the alleged involvement of police in supporting gambling houses in the city. But the threat was only a hoax.

A source who has close contact with the group of impostors revealed that there are at least three places in the city which have been their "headquarters".

The places are Hotel Paripurna, on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta, with at least 40 members, a stall on Jl. Kopi in the downtown Kota area, also in West Jakarta, with around 25 members, and the Rawa Bening market in East Jakarta, also having about 40 members, the source said.

"They are very convincing and well organized. They have high solidarity, such as donating money to their members who are sick," he said.

He said the group at Hotel Paripurna and Rawa Bening market share similarities in their "operation".

He said the operators usually selected their victims -- officials or businessmen -- by reading newspapers. They would then visit the victims and demand money.

Meanwhile, victims of the Jl. Kopi group are usually officials or businessmen dealing in exports and imports, including customs, he said.

He said the impostors have similar operational procedures when striking their targets.

"They never visit their victims alone, but in small groups consisting of between five and 10 people. Each group arrives in a car," the source said.

He said the impostors earn between Rp 100,000 (US$10) and Rp 200,000 ($20) a day from their operations, which they often describe as a "news investigation".

The City Police detained "a pseudo-journalist", identified as Yahya Lubis, on Thursday for torturing Mansur, a journalist from Media Indonesia daily, last year.

Yahya, who was arrested on the previous day at National Police headquarters, admitted to having beaten Mansur at Hotel Mulia, in Central Jakarta, in August last year, after the victim called him as an impostor.

"I'm not a pseudo-journalist. I have a media pass," Yahya told The Jakarta Post and Kompas daily.

He claimed to be a reporter for an online media group Lingkar Dalam.convey.com.

Yahya and his associates were earlier reported by several journalists, including Mansur, for blackmailing several governors attending a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs a few months before the incident. Yahya has denied the report. (jun)