The Jakarta Globe, Jun 13, 2014
Jakarta. An online journalist admitted on Friday to having contributed articles critical of Joko Widodo to a tabloid that was distributed for free in Islamic boarding schools.
Darmawan Sepriyossa, editor of Inilah.com, said he had agreed to work with Setiyardi, his former colleague at Tempo magazine, to produce the tabloid called “Obor Rakyat.”
Setiyardi, who is a commissioner of state-owned plantation company PTPN XIII (Persero), was a member of former Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo’s campaign team.
Darmawan said he agreed to join Setiyardi in publishing the tabloid because of what he described as a lack of critical reporting of the Jakarta Governor’s record.
“We see that mainstream media are in euphoria, they can only clap hands [for Joko] but could not raise red flags against Jokowi,” he said. “Jokowi is close with the media — he’s a media darling. It makes media forget their work as a watchdog. The media are actually leaving Jokowi alone.
“I was aware that there might be problem with inilah.com, the media I work for. It’s impossible to work in two media organizations without sanctions, or even being fired by Inilah.com. Therefore we made an agreement that I would use a pen name, while the chief editor, Setiyardi, used his real name.”
He said that Setiyardi wanted to publish the tabloid, because they were both supporters of Jokowi, but were disappointed because that he had vacated his position as Jakarta governor.
“The idea of being a watchdog while some of the mainstream media were asleep attracted me,” he said.
Obor Rakyat — a free publication distributed to several Islamic boarding schools, mosques as well as several religious leaders by mail — recently published reports saying that Joko, a Muslim, was instead a Chinese Christian.
(Now what is going to happen with this journo clown, is his cooky going to crumble aka is his chicken coming home to roost?)
siK.
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za 14 jun 2014 - 6:10