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)