Tempo Editor in Chief Condemns Hacking; Deems it Attempt to Silence Journalism

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Tempo.co editor in chief, Setri Yasa, on Friday confirmed the multiple hacking against the news website he leads and condemned the vile acts. He deemed the hacking as attempts to disrupt journalistic work that is protected by the Constitution under the Press Law (UU Pers). 

“We condemn anyone who tries to disrupt media in conducting its work upon providing the public’s right for information that is relevant and trustable,” said Setri Yasa on Friday, August 21. 

The chief editor said this disruption can be categorized as attempts to silence media but asserted that it will not have any effect on the performance and journalistic work from Tempo’s team. Setri Yasa assured that the media will “work as usual.”

The Tempo.co website was recovered at 01:30 WIB.

Just minutes past midnight earlier today at 00:40, the homepage of Tempo.co website was ‘defaced’ with a message that reads “Stop hoax, don’t lie to Indonesian citizens, return to the correct journalistic ethics that abides by the press council. Don’t base it depending on who pays.”

The message with black background ended with signoff by a twitter account identified as @xdigeeembok. “Deface by @xdigeeembok.”

As the name is clicked, users are directed to the twitter account with the same name that is full of tweets that link and confirm the hacking to the aforementioned Twitter account. At 00:51, the account tweeted a hashtag declaring journalism ethics as the utmost value, “#KodeEtikJurnalistikHargaMati.”

Read: Over 1,000 People at Twitter Have Ability to Aid Hack of Accounts

FAJAR PEBRIANTO