The foreign minister's article<\/p>\n
I refer to an article titled Sept. 11 changed American foreign
\npolicy published by The Jakarta Post on page 7 of its Dec. 11,
\n2003 issue. An endnote cites the article as "an abridged version
\nof the minister's (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
\nIndonesia) keynote address at the Council for Security
\nCooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) conference in Jakarta on
\nDec. 8."<\/p>\n
In this regard, I wish to put the following on record:
\n* Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda delivered his keynote address
\nbefore a limited audience, the participants of the CSCAP
\nconference. It is understood that the conference applied the
\n"Chatham House rule".
\n* The publication of the keynote address by the Post was without
\nprior consent of the author. There was indeed a request from the
\nPost for such consent, by way of a telephone call in the late
\nafternoon of Dec. 9, 2003. But the request was directly and
\nimmediately turned down.<\/p>\n
Hence, without prejudice to the content of the article, its
\npublication without prior consent of the author poses a
\ndisturbing question of journalistic ethics.<\/p>\n
UMAR HADI
\nMedia Relations
\nOffice of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Note: We would like to submit the following points:
\na. The Chatham House rules were applicable to the discussions
\nconducted by the Conference participants or statements conveyed
\nregarding the speakers' statements.<\/p>\n
Thus we did not report on the response by the U.S. Ambassador
\nRalph Boyce to Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda's speech when he
\ntook the floor that Monday at the end of the afternoon session.
\nb. However, since then the U.S. ambassador has expressed his
\nviews, at least on two occasions, outside the conference hall.
\nThose views were reported by news agencies as printed by The
\nJakarta Post in its Wednesday, Dec. 10 edition.<\/p>\n
The Reuters news agency report run by the Post opens with the
\nfollowing lead paragraph: "In unusually blunt remarks, U.S.
\nAmbassador Ralph Boyce said on Tuesday that Indonesia's strong
\ncriticism of Washington's Iraq policies should be kept to the
\nproper channels and not aired in public".
\nc. It would be odd if the readers of this newspaper became aware
\nof the U.S. ambassador's reaction to Foreign Minister Hassan
\nWirayuda's "keynote address" before a large audience, including
\ninvited guests, while they were kept in the dark on the contents
\nof that speech.
\nd. Copies of Minister Wirayuda's speech were abundantly available
\nas they were piled on a desk outside the conference hall, to be
\nfreely picked up by anybody who was interested. The only note
\nprinted on the cover page is the following reminder: "Please
\ncheck against delivery". Our reporter carefully followed the
\ndelivered speech, which did not deviate from the printed text.
\ne. When our staff editor contacted Umar Hadi's office last
\nTuesday, it was not to request consent to print Minister
\nWirayuda's speech but to obtain an electronic version of it.
\nf. It would be helpful indeed if media relations officials of
\ngovernment agencies did realize that in this era of Reformasi,
\nspeeches delivered by Cabinet ministers with printed texts
\ndistributed do belong to the public domain.<\/p>\n
--Editor<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-foreign-ministers-article-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }