Indonesian Civil Servants Fight Disinformation in the Digital Age

Knowing to fight disinformation is a skill everyone should have in the digital age including civil servants. In line with SDG 16, UNESCO Jakarta in collaboration with Directorate General Human Rights, Ministry of Law and Human Rights organized a training workshop on Freedom of Expression and Countering Disinformation held in Jakarta on 14 August 2019.

The one-day training aimed to increase the knowledge of participants – the civil servants from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights - on the importance of freedom of expression and its relevance to the work of Directorate General of Human Rights. Mrs. RR. Risma Indriyani, the Secretary of Directorate General Human Rights who opened the workshop hoped that the training improves the awareness and knowledge of civil servants in countering fake news and disinformation.

The participants are acquainted with the current overview of freedom of expression and press freedom in Indonesia and globally by Ms. Ratna Ariyanti from Alliance of Independent Journalist Indonesia (AJI) and Mr. Agus Sudibyo from Indonesian Press Council. The session was followed by training on identifying hate speech, hoax and using verification tools that was led by Mr. Afwan Purwanto also from AJI Jakarta and Mr. Ari Wibowo Sasmito from MAFINDO, an anti-hoax civil society organization.

Participants received hands-on experience in verifying the authenticity of images and videos from the internet through several exercises using smartphones and computers. At the end of the training, the facilitators engaged participants in an interactive quiz to test their knowledge of the important lessons learned they got from the training. One important lesson was each person has a role in reducing the spread of fake news and disinformation. The more critical the users, the better the fight against disinformation.

UNESCO has recently published a training manual “Journalism, ‘Fake News’, and Disinformation” as a resource material for journalists and journalism educators. The publication is available in English and Bahasa Indonesia.