Team to fight phony newsmen at police HQ

Team to fight phony newsmen at police HQ

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the Indonesian Journalists
Association posted at Jakarta police headquarters have been asked
to guard against phony reporters operating at police
headquarters.

"We will cooperate closely with the police, because we believe
that there are many people who claim to be journalists but do not
belong to any publication," Tarman Azam, chairman of the Jakarta
office of the association told reporters yesterday.

He said a coordinating board comprising seven journalists had
been formed to help police nab phony bogus reporters.

The seven are H. Timbo Siahaan from Jayakarta daily, who was
unanimously elected as the board's chairman, Kamba Basri of The
Jakarta Post, Pipi Supiaman from Sinar Pagi, Bambang Usdeki from
Suara Merdeka, Agus Damanik from Dobrak, Nanan Kembaren from
Suara Pembaruan and Hendra Usmaya from Nusra.

He said these phony journalists, locally called 'wartawan
Bodrex' or 'wartawan amplop' (reporters looking for bribes and not
working for established papers) could taint the image of the
profession of true journalists.

"There are allegations that many bogus scribes have extorted
money from people who come to police headquarters for various
reasons, including applying for new vehicles documents," Tarman
said as quoted by Antara as saying.

He urged the police to report immediately to the central board
of the association when these phony journalists are caught in the
act. (bas)