"We hope with the presence of the manual the Press Council could monitor the development of on-line media better," National Police head of public relations division Inspector General Saud Usman Nasution said at the signing of the manual at the Press Council Office here on Friday.
Saud said the police that had so far had a memorandum of understanding with the Press Council in connection with legal problems of press institutions would now be able to carry out their job more lightly as there has now been mutually beneficial cooperation from the two parties.
"So far we have to be careful when dealing with a case. It is not impossible for us to take measures that we consider right but we will still get the blame. But later the Press Council could play a role to select the cases before they are reported to us," he said.
Several issues being regulated in the manual are the coverage of cyber media, news verification and balance, contents made by users, corrections, right to reply, revocation of story, advertisements, property right, quotation of reference and dispute settlement.
Saud hoped various legal issues that are connected with the press would be made clearer because there has now been an instrument though not a legal regulation in nature, to regulate them.
"We hope there would not be a legal process to settle press problems as they could be settled based on the ethics code of the press," he said.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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