On Harry Burton and journalism<\/p>\n
Keith Loveard, News Editor, www.laksamana.net, Publisher,
\nwww.asiamad.com, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Journalists in the Asian bureaux of the international news
\nagency Reuters held a minute's silence Wednesday, Nov. 21 to
\nhonor their colleagues killed by Taliban stragglers in
\nAfghanistan.<\/p>\n
The death of one of those two workers, Harry Burton, was
\nparticularly felt by his co-workers at his base of operations in
\nJakarta and by others who knew and respected him in the Jakarta
\nmedia community.<\/p>\n
The death of Burton and his three colleagues at the hands of
\nTaliban stragglers is, regrettable as it may be, the inevitable
\nrisk posed by those who elect to work for the world's action-
\nhungry media empires.<\/p>\n
While wars will always bring such risks, it is not
\nunreasonable for the media community across the world to demand
\nthat such deaths be minimized, and that violence against the
\nmedia be outlawed and treated with the utter contempt it
\ndeserves.<\/p>\n
We did not know Harry, but are told he grew bored with his
\nlife as a buyer at a major Melbourne store and came to Jakarta to
\nbreak into the cameraman game. He joined a brigade of reporters
\nwho are always on the front line, most often at risk.<\/p>\n
Many of the best cameraman to have worked in Asia have been
\nAustralians, most notably Damien Parer in Papua in World War II,
\nand Neil Davis through Vietnam and a host of other major
\nconflicts. Davis told his biographer that it was far safer always
\nto be on the front line, never even five meters behind it, and as
\nrarely as possible in front of it. He died in a minor coup in
\nBangkok. Now there is Harry Burton.<\/p>\n
Indonesia itself is no stranger to the murder of journalists.
\nIn recent years, East Timor claimed two lives, an Indonesian
\nworking for a Japanese media outlet, Agus Mulyawan, and Sander
\nThoenes, a young Financial Times journalist also based in
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
In Yogyakarta, the 1996 beating to death of Udin (Fuad
\nMuhammad Syafruddin) by elements allegedly connected to the
\nRegent of Bantul, Sri Roso Sudarmo, has seen the conviction of
\nonly one low-ranked police officer found to have been involved in
\nthe crime, jailed for destroying evidence. The investigation has
\ngone no further.<\/p>\n
Violence against other journalists, local and foreign
\nnationals working for both offshore and national media,
\ncontinues.<\/p>\n
In Aceh, reporters complain that pressure from the Free Aceh
\nMovement (GAM) and from the authorities means that they are
\nforced to \"hedge their bets\" in reporting, with the result that
\ntheir readers never have any real idea of what is going on.<\/p>\n
Failure to follow the strictures of this tightrope act
\nrecently by Banda Aceh daily Serambi Indonesia resulted in the
\nforced closure of the paper for a week. The publication has also
\nover the past few years seen four of its vehicles destroyed,
\nwhile the Banda Aceh bureau of Medan-based Waspada has lost two.<\/p>\n
In another case, a Banda Aceh journalist is said by his
\nfriends to have been traumatized, taken refuge in drugs and has
\nnot written anything since he was fired on at close range last
\nyear by two masked men on motorbikes. The bullets, incidentally,
\nwere police issue.<\/p>\n
Reporting of conflict is inevitably laden with personal risk.
\nWhile journalists take such risks into account and accept them as
\npart of life, while at the same time taking all reasonable steps
\nto minimize them, it is not acceptable that crimes against the
\nmedia should be left uncovered.<\/p>\n
While it will be difficult indeed to bring anyone to trial for
\nthe murder of Burton and his colleagues, it should not be so hard
\nfor the Indonesian authorities to fully investigate the deaths of
\nUdin and those in which the lives and livelihood of other
\njournalists have been threatened.<\/p>\n
Yet no action, apart from the lip service jailing of the one
\npolice officer in the Udin case, has ever been taken.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's official and alternative journalist associations
\nhave failed to maintain pressure on the authorities to mount
\nreasonable and thorough investigations. The Indonesian media
\nindustry itself has also been less than active in demanding
\nproper protection for its workers. New Minister for Informatics
\nSyamsul Mu'arif has so far played no visible role -- neither
\nnegative nor constructive -- in the information side of his
\nportfolio, preferring to busy himself with the less minefield-
\nprone area of technology development.<\/p>\n
The media in Indonesia and other developing nations is in a
\nprocess of transition to the \"watch dog\" role it so nobly serves
\nin so many other countries. Many sections of the media both here
\nand across the world prefer not follow the dictates of the
\nhighest levels of the profession and prefer to wallow in
\nsensationalism.<\/p>\n
On the positive side, both in Indonesia and elsewhere in the
\nregion there is a level of commitment among many individuals in
\nthe industry and among groups of journalists to develop a level
\nof skills and professionalism which seeks to continue a tradition
\nof journalistic excellence exemplified by those like Mochtar
\nLubis that was, in Indonesia, forced into careful channels for
\nthe 32 years of the Soeharto era. Individuals like Aristides
\nKatoppo and Goenawan Mohamad kept the flame alive, and both were
\nbanned by Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The new Press Law sets a progressive and liberal framework for
\nthe industry that goes so far as to provide penalties for those
\nwho seek to put obstacles in the way of reporters. Fine as this
\nis, it is not enough.<\/p>\n
If the murders of Burton and his colleagues, the latest in a
\nsad trail of killings both in Asia and elsewhere, are to have
\nsome residing message, it is that governments and society has a
\nresponsibility to protect the lives and well-being of media
\nworkers. Mere lip service to the rights of journalists to provide
\nthe world with the information it demands is not enough.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/on-harry-burton-and-journalism-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}