Clip of popular Indonesian journalist falsely edited to show she 'supports' presidential candidate

"Najwa Supports Prabowo," reads Indonesian-language text superimposed on a video posted on TikTok on May 22, 2023.

The text refers to prominent Indonesian journalist Najwa Shihab and Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, while the post's caption uses her nickname Nana and makes the same claim (archived links here and here). 

The 19-second video, which has been viewed more than 628,000 times, shows Najwa being asked by a talk show host about the country's upcoming presidential election. 

"Your prediction -- who is it?" the host asks. "According to the survey results, the top three names are: Mr Prabowo," Najwa answers, making a heart gesture with her fingers (archived link).

The rest of the video shows footage and images of Najwa meeting Prabowo, who is also Indonesia's defence minister.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on December 29, 2023

One of three candidates contesting in the February 2024 poll, Prabowo will be facing off against former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo. 

Najwa, the host of popular talk show Mata Najwa, is famous for asking tough questions of prominent figures and politicians appearing on the programme (archived link). She began hosting the talk show in 2009, then founded her own media company Narasi TV in 2018.

Similar videos were also shared on TikTok here and here, as well as on video-sharing app SnackVideo here, racking up more than 3.5 million views.

However, the footage has been edited and taken out of context. 

Edited video

A Google keyword search found that the original video was uploaded on YouTube channel RoTivi Media on June 21, 2022 (archived link).

The video's title reads: "Najwa Shihab Reveals All Facts!! Mr Prabowo Does Not Want to Be Interviewed by Me, Why??"

The 45-minute-long footage shows her appearing as a guest on a podcast hosted by Ronal Surapradja and Tike Priatnakusuma, talking about a range of topics from her journalistic career. 

At the 22-minute, 46-second mark, Najwa talks about Prabowo refusing her interview requests. "I interviewed him once and it was just fine. But after that, he did not want to be interviewed anymore," she says.

"Why is it, Sir?" she says looking at the camera, as if asking Prabowo, before smiling and giving a finger heart gesture.  

The portion of the clip used in the false posts starts from the 41-minute,17-second mark of the original video, when the three are discussing about the 2024 presidential election. 

Asked who she thinks would contest the election, Najwa replies: "According to the survey results, the top three names are: Mr Prabowo," before waving to the camera and showing another finger heart sign.

The video in the false posts leaves out the subsequent parts, which show the hosts laughing at her joke and Najwa saying: "Is my gesture convincing enough? Mr Prabowo, Mr Ganjar, Mr Anies."

Below are screenshot comparisons of the video in the false post (left) and the original video from RoTivi Media (right):

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Screenshot comparisons of the video in the false post (left) and the original video from RoTivi Media (right)

Indonesia's political parties only announced their presidential candidate picks in the months after this interview -- Prabowo in August 2022, Anies in October 2022 and Ganjar in April 2023 (archived links here, here and here).

Najwa denied the claim shared in the false posts. "As a journalist, I never express support for any presidential candidates," she told AFP on December 28, 2023. 

"The 'love' sign gesture was an effort to invite Prabowo to Mata Najwa after he had not appeared as a guest on Mata Najwa for almost 10 years," she said. "The context of the conversation in the podcast was partly to convince Prabowo to accept my invitation."

The footage and photos of Najwa meeting Prabowo were taken when she visited his office at the Ministry of Defence on March 2, 2023, as reported here and here (archived links here and here).  

Prabowo finally appeared on Mata Najwa in late June 2023 -- one year after the podcast was aired -- and again in September 2023 (archived links here and here). 

The other presidential candidates, Ganjar and Anies, also appeared on the show in September 2023 (archived links here and here).