Indonesian press needs to face its own public<\/p>\n
Janet Steele, Associate Professor, School of Media and Public Affairs,
\nGeorge Washington University<\/p>\n
A few years ago at the annual Fulbright conference in
\nYogyakarta, I heard Professor Daniel Lev describe a personal
\n\"epiphany\" that he had experienced many years ago when, as a
\ngraduate student doing research in Indonesia, he came to the
\nsurprising realization that young Indonesian men and young
\nAmerican men viewed sex in exactly the same way.<\/p>\n
Perhaps my personal epiphany occurred in 1997 when, as a
\nFulbright professor in the American Studies program at the
\nUniversity of Indonesia, I agreed to meet with a group of mid-
\nlevel reporters and editors at Media Indonesia on a weekly basis
\nin order to talk about journalism. To my great surprise, I
\nrealized that even during the New Order, Indonesian and American
\njournalists shared almost exactly the same understanding of what
\nmakes journalism \"good.\"<\/p>\n
The values of good journalism are not a secret: They are
\naccuracy, objectivity, fairness, balance, and independence. So
\nmany of the recent problems with the press in Indonesia come from
\nthe perception that journalists are not acting \"responsibly.\" The
\nproblem is that the idea of press \"responsibility\" was perverted
\nduring the New Order to mean \"responsibility to government
\nauthorities.\"<\/p>\n
Today, in this new era of press freedom, to whom is the press
\nresponsible? To the public. And who should be enforcing these
\ngood journalistic values? Journalists themselves.<\/p>\n
In a democracy, the government doesn't enforce the rules of
\ngood journalism. Instead, reporters and editors regulate
\nthemselves through the application of their own professional
\nethics and values.<\/p>\n
This is happening today in Indonesia. Institutions like the
\nInstitute for the Study of Free Flow of Information (ISAI), the
\nAlliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Yogyakarta
\nInsitution for Research, Education and Publication (LP3Y) provide
\nadvanced training for journalists. News organizations have
\ncreated ombudsmen and media watches that respond directly to the
\nconcerns of the public. And of course the Press Council, under
\nthe guiding hand of Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, has made great
\nstrides towards peacefully resolving disputes between the press
\nand the public. Each of these institutions has the capacity to
\nserve the public interest and deserves our wholehearted support.<\/p>\n
But there are still many challenges facing the press today,
\nmany of which are the unfortunate legacy of the New Order. We see
\nthese challenges in the reporting on Aceh, and in the idea that a
\nresponsible press must be \"patriotic\" or \"nationalistic,\" even at
\nthe cost of not reporting on the truth. We also see these
\nchallenges in the rise of thuggery (premanisme), and in the
\nrecent physical attacks on journalists. These attacks are both
\nfrightening and inexcusable.<\/p>\n
In a democracy, the press exists to serve the public. For most
\nof the New Order, discussions about press responsibility were
\nconducted between the press and the government, and the public
\nwas not involved. It was as if the press, the government, and the
\npeople were all seated in huge auditorium. The government was
\nhigh up on the stage, and the press was seated in the first few
\nrows. The public was in the back. The press and the government
\nwere engaged in a dialog, but the public was silent. They were
\nleft completely out of the conversation. This situation has had
\nvery serious consequences.<\/p>\n
The greatest challenge facing Indonesian journalists today is
\nthe need to \"turn around\" -- to face the public, and include them
\nin the conversation.<\/p>\n
For too long during the New Order, the public had no
\nlegitimate means of channeling its aspirations. As a result, the
\npeople expressed themselves through demonstrations, riots, and
\nworse. It is now up to the press to help create new means of
\nlistening to and responding to the public's concerns. And it is
\nthe responsibility of all of us to create new channels to bring
\nthe public back into the dialogue, and to work to educate
\ncitizens about the vital role of the press in a democracy.<\/p>\n
In authoritarian regimes, governments fear the truth. During
\nthe history of the New Order, most clamp-downs on the press
\noccurred not because the press published falsehoods, but because
\nthe press published the truth. Today, in this era of reformasi,
\nmost officials agree with the idea that the press should be
\nallowed to do its job, seeking the truth and providing vital
\ninformation to the people.<\/p>\n
Yet, there are still some people who seem to think that a news
\nstory is more dangerous if it is true; that if a publication
\nreports on the facts, and if readers use these facts to draw
\ntheir own conclusions, that the press is somehow at fault. That
\nthe press is acting irresponsibly. Wasn't this the thinking of
\nthe New Order? That the press should not report on certain types
\nof incidents because the truth might lead to social unrest or
\nhinder development?<\/p>\n
The problem with this way of thinking is that it makes
\njournalists afraid to do their job. Social problems remain
\nhidden, and journalists practice self-censorship. And the public
\nis left in the dark.<\/p>\n
Do we as citizens really think that the truth is more
\ndangerous than falsehood? As citizens of democracies, we need to
\nsupport journalists who are doing their job. We need to speak
\nout, and to remind one another that it is the responsibility of
\njournalists to seek out the truth and to report on it.
\nJournalists should be held accountable for what actually appears
\non the page -- not for the conclusions that exist only in the
\nminds of their readers.<\/p>\n
What we as citizens can ask of journalists is that they act
\nhonorably, do their jobs to the best of their ability, and work
\nin compliance with the rules of their profession. It is the
\nresponsibility of journalists to report on the truth. If they are
\ndoing this, they are doing their job -- and we as citizens are
\nthe beneficiaries. The fact that the truth may sometimes lead to
\ndisagreements and even to political conflict is the greatest
\nchallenge as well as the greatest opportunity of living in a
\ndemocracy.<\/p>\n
In the words of James Madison, author of the American Bill of
\nRights, \"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people
\nwho mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the
\npower which knowledge gives.\"<\/p>\n
The article was presented at a one-day seminar on Indonesia
\nToward True Democracy: The opportunity and Challenges sponsored
\nby the Jakarta-based Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah in
\ncooperation with U.S. Embassy on June 17 in Jakarta. The
\nIndonesian version of the article was published in Koran Tempo
\ndaily.<\/p>",
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