Media raises heat under fakes

Slamet Susanto and Tarko Sudiarno, Yogyakarta

After a protest last week, Yogyakarta journalists stepped up their campaign against bogus journalists in the city on Monday by attaching stickers to cars and various places in the city.

The latest stage of the campaign began on Monday morning when dozens of journalists in the city held separate protests in front of the offices of the Yogyakarta provincial government, the Yogyakarta Prosecutor's Office and the Yogyakarta High Court.

Following the noisy protests, they divided up into a number of groups, with each group being assigned to attach stickers to passing cars and particular locations around the city, mostly government offices. The stickers said, "Stop: We Do Not Accept or Serve Bogus Journalists!"

One of the journalists, Herman Rio, from the Bernas daily, said that the latest actions were part of a campaign to combat the proliferation of bogus journalists in the city. The first round of the campaign took place in Yogya on Friday last week, which was declared "No to Bogus Journalists Day."

The campaign would also be taken to the other regencies and municipalities in the province, he said.

"We have earmarked 1,000 stickers for each regency and municipality in the province," said Herman, adding that the stickers would be put up in the locations that were prone to visits by bogus journalists, such as prosecutor's offices, district courts, police headquarters and hotels.

He said that the campaign would be followed up by other steps, such as the holding of talks with government officials to inform them about how the bogus journalists operated.

Sugeng Oto Pranyoto from the Radar Jogja daily said that the campaign had been launched due to rampant extortion by bogus journalists, which had tarnished the image of real journalists, not only in Yogya but also nationwide.

The bogus journalists often arrived at a person's office in a group, usually demanding money in exchange for not reporting an allegation of corruption. They were only in pursuit of cash, which harmed the image of real members of the press.

Oto said that he often received complaints from people working in government offices, or their family members, that they had been extorted by reporters who came from various press publications. But, when he checked out the allegations, none of the press publications said they had sent reporters to the government offices in question, he said. "Which means that the 'reporters' who visited the government offices were bogus journalists. They are very annoying," he said.

Besides the protests and sticker campaigns, the Yogyakarta journalists will also produce T-shirts bearing the slogan, "Fight Bogus Journalists" in a bid to encourage legitimate journalists to combat the bogus ones.

The journalists involved in the campaign come from the print and broadcast media, as well as various journalistic associations like the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), the Yogyakarta Indonesian Photographers Association (PFI) and a number of radio journalists' groups.