"Candidates, supporters, campaign team, and political parties who are inconvenienced with news reports about them, do not commit violence against the journalist; invoke your right of reply instead," Press Council Chief Ninik Rahayu stated here on Thursday.
Rahayu pointed out that during the election process this year, the Press Council received 18 complaints on news coverage from various entities and all of them had been resolved.
Meanwhile, the Press Council also received reports regarding violence against journalists during the regional election campaign period.
One such incident occurred last October in Jayapura, Papua, when unidentified suspects flung Molotov cocktails at a local news media office, causing damage to company vehicles.
"Such intimidation attempted to disrupt the professional work of journalists," she remarked.
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Rahayu urged security officers to investigate cases of violence against journalists and take action against those responsible. She expected that those incidents would not recur in the future.
The Press Council also urged political candidates and related parties to provide access to journalists and not hinder their work in seeking information and carrying out their duties professionally.
Likewise, journalists were urged to remain impartial and not express their preference for any political candidate during the regional elections in their news reports, she said. It is to ensure they would remain professional.
"Journalists should not join the campaign team. If they decide to do so, they should resign," she emphasized.
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Translator: Lia WS, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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