Posts share altered image of Indonesian president visiting Muslim preacher at hospital

Published on July 19, 2023 at 04:27
4 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A doctored image has been shared in multiple posts that falsely claim it shows Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his wife visiting Muslim preacher Emha Ainun Nadjib at a hospital in July 2023. While it is true that the president visited the preacher at a hospital where he was being treated, the picture was in fact an altered photo combining several old pictures unrelated to the visit.

A photo that appears to show Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo greeting Emha Ainun Nadjib -- also known by his nickname Cak Nun -- as First Lady Iriana looks on was shared in this Facebook post on July 12, 2023.

"Jokowi and the first lady's visit to see the ailing Cak Nun was an extremely good lesson," the post's Indonesian-language caption partly reads.

"We knew Cak Nun in his lectures often criticised Jokowi. He even gave him a hurtful label, but on the contrary, this is how Jokowi repaid it. Jokowi came to visit Cak Nun."

A screenshot from the misinformation post (captured on July 17, 2023) ( Satya Adhi)

Cak Nun -- a popular preacher and Muslim intellectual -- stirred controversy in January 2023 when he called Jokowi a "pharaoh who controlled Indonesia" in his sermon (archived links here and here). He later apologised for the remarks (archived link).

The post circulated days after Jokowi visited Cak Nun at a hospital in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where the preacher was being treated for cerebral hemorrhage on July 9, 2023 (archived links here and here).

Similar posts also appeared on Twitter here and here, and on TikTok here, here and here with more than 157,000 Likes.

The picture was also used in the thumbnails of YouTube videos discussing Jokowi's visit here and here.

However, the photo was altered.

Doctored image

A Google reverse image search found the image in the misleading post was created with elements taken from three pictures: two photos of Jokowi visiting the late Indonesian former president BJ Habibie at a hospital on October 28, 2014 and a picture of Cak Nun from an unrelated event.

Two of the pictures -- here and here -- were published by the local media outlet Liputan 6 (archived links here and here).

One of the pictures shows Jokowi greeting Habibie, who was being treated at an army hospital in Jakarta, while the other shows Jokowi, First Lady Iriana and their daughter Kahiyang Ayu conversing with Habibie.

Below are screenshots of the photos published by Liputan 6:

Screenshot of the first photo in Liputan 6's report

Screenshot of the second photo in Liputan 6's report ( Yenni KWOK)

Both pictures were also published by the state-run Antara News Agency and local news site Merdeka.com in late October 2014 (archived links here and here).

Online keyword searches found the picture of Cak Nun corresponds with this photo, published by the local news portal Kumparan on February 3, 2020 (archived link). It was taken when he offered condolences to the family of Islamic leader Salahuddin Wahid, who passed away one day earlier.

Below is a screenshot of the Kumparan report:

Screenshot of the Kumparan report

Other photos of Cak Nun on the same occasion were published by other local media here and here (archived links here and here).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (centre top), the genuine photos of Jokowi's hospital visit (right and centre bottom), and the genuine photo of Cak Nun from Kumparan (left):

Screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (centre top), the genuine photos of Jokowi's hospital visit (right and centre bottom), and the genuine photo of Cak Nun (left)

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