Most I'nesia news websites involved in "plagiarism"
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Most online news websites in Indonesia plagiarise other people's material because they are run mostly by amateurs with little knowledge about journalism and the media business, according to a journalist.
Antara news agency Lampung bureau editor Budisantoso Budiman said there would be more online news websites accused of plagiarism if professional journalism organisations, such as the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Association of Indonesian Journalists began taking the matter seriously.
Budisantoso said it was hard to investigate plagiarism in cyberspace because it was easy to get rid of evidence.
He said there were various business obstacles being faced by online news websites. One of them, he said, was slight ad revenue as advertisers were still favouring conventional media.
According to him, the business side of online news websites was not being handled professionally by competent workers.
He said the only way to minimise the obstacles was to renew the 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction Law.
Meanwhile, the AJI has called for a new Internet governance law, saying the current 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction Law is too repressive for freedom of expression.
