Coded dataset: Blame avoidance in online news on peatland fires in South Sumatra, Indonesia, 2019–2026

This dataset contains the coded version of 20,457 unique online news items on forest and land fires (karhutla) in South Sumatra Province, Indonesia, published in 2019, 2023 and 2026 (1 January–15 October). It is the underlying data for the article "Blaming the Weather, Crediting the State: Blame Avoidance and Recurrent Peatland Fires in Indonesia" (F1000Research). Each row is one news item, with publication date, seasonal phase, outlet, URL, tone label, 14 indicators of blame-avoidance strategies (Hood 2011) and 12 actor indicators, coded with Indonesian keyword dictionaries. Files: news_items_coded.csv (coded data), codebook.csv (variable definitions and coding rules), README.txt (collection, screening, exclusions, de-identification), deidentification_log.csv, coding_dictionaries.py and analysis.py (Python code reproducing all tables and figures), SRQR_checklist.pdf (reporting checklist), and an Excel convenience copy with summary tables. Article texts, summaries and author fields are not included because of publisher copyright and to protect private individuals. For 1,385 items referring to suspects, victims, minors or violence, the URL path is withheld; full URLs are available from the corresponding author ([e-mail]) on reasonable request.