What are the press rules?<\/p>\n
Of late there have been complaints about too much sex and
\nviolence in the media. There have also been complaints about
\nvague reporting. One may argue that it's due to the omnipresent
\nthreat of a press ban that results in safe-style reporting. To
\nmark National Press Day, which falls on Feb. 9, The Jakarta Post
\nponders the role of the press in Indonesia's New Order. On Page 2
\nwe look at the role of journalists and of the media industry
\nwhich remains, despite the threat of bans, a lucrative business.
\nAll stories focus on the print media.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's print media are a lucrative
\nbusiness, and one that is getting bigger. But the banning of
\nthree newsweeklies last June has left editors uncertain about the
\nrules of the game.<\/p>\n
The latest newcomer to the print media industry is Tiras
\nmagazine, which was launched last month to replace the banned
\nEditor magazine and is produced by former Editor journalists.<\/p>\n
Tiras aims to regain the following of faithful Editor readers,
\nwhose circulation was around 60,000 copies per week at the time
\nit was outlawed.<\/p>\n
Today, approaching its 50th year of independence, Indonesia
\nhas 247 newspapers with a total circulation of 10.5 m copies;
\n117 magazines (5.13 m copies); one state-owned television and
\nfive private television stations (92 million viewers); and 823
\nradio stations, 627 of which are privately owned. Compare the
\nfigures with those of 1957, when there were only 96 newspapers
\nwith an average circulation of 9,200 copies each.<\/p>\n
The most phenomenal growth was achieved by the now-banned
\ntabloid DeTik. Starting with a circulation of 30,000 copies in
\nFebruary 1993, its circulation had soared to over 450,000 within
\na year. Kompas, the largest-selling national daily newspaper,
\ncommenced publication in 1965 with 4,828 copies and today enjoys
\na circulation of 550,000.<\/p>\n
DeTik's remarkable growth was attributed to the 1990 official
\nannouncement that press censorship would be relaxed, prompting
\nthe tabloid to report on issues that a cautious press had
\npreviously left alone. It also reflected the growing public
\nhunger for \"real\" investigative reporting, as well as an appetite
\nfor controversy.<\/p>\n
Despite official claims that there was a right to free speech
\nin Indonesia, in June last year the government put its foot down
\nand crushed DeTik and two other magazines, Tempo and Editor. How
\nwas the ban to be understood? It has been argued that the ban
\nonly showed that the authorities were not ready for the change
\nthat they themselves initiated. Could it be that the three
\npublications had encroached on the inner sanctum of the powerful,
\ninstead of staying in the corridor of \"openness\"?<\/p>\n
It used to be taboo to criticize those in power. Today,
\ncriticism has gained some limited acceptability: even the Armed
\nForces were criticized during the 1992 general elections. It
\nseems safe to conclude that as long as the press confines itself
\nto the wings of the power stage, it is allowed to be critical.<\/p>\n
The protests that followed the June 1994 bannings showed how
\nfar the process of democratization had already progressed.<\/p>\n
After all, not much noise was made about previous bannings,
\nsuch as those of the Prioritas newspaper in 1987, and the
\nafternoon daily Sinar Harapan in 1986. Editors and reporters
\nextended their condolences to the staff and readers of the banned
\npublications, tried to learn the lesson, and continued on their
\ncautious way.<\/p>\n
But last year's banning of three publications, after a spell
\nof apparent press freedom, was different. Students, pro-democracy
\nactivists and journalists took to the streets, and the
\ndemonstrations were reported on and photographed.<\/p>\n
Then the protests became more focused and the government was
\naccused of misusing the institution of the publishing license
\n(SIUPP). Protesters called for the repeal of the 1984 Ministerial
\nRegulation which legitimizes press bans.<\/p>\n
Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara quotes the late chief justice,
\nOemar Seno Adji, as saying that the publishing license was
\nintended to regulate publishing enterprises, not the content of
\ntheir products: \"in no way can the withdrawal of a permit be used
\nas a means of banning a publication, except in the case of
\nmanagerial problems such as insolvency or failure to pay tax.\"<\/p>\n
But clause 33 (h) of the 1984 Ministerial Regulation on
\nPublication Permits authorizes the suspension of permits \"if the
\nconcerned publishers\/companies do not reflect the life of a
\nhealthy press, a free and responsible press.\"<\/p>\n
\"That regulation is too abstract,\" says Abdul Hakim.<\/p>\n
Protests gave way to lawsuits challenging the 1984 regulation
\non the basis that it contradicted the 1982 Press Act, which
\nguarantees the press will not be subject to bannings.<\/p>\n
Those filing law suits were following in the footsteps of
\nSurya Paloh, the owner of the Media Indonesia daily, who had
\nfiled the first case regarding the 1984 regulation back in 1993.<\/p>\n
Ambivalent<\/p>\n
Another lawyer, T. Mulya Lubis, says the prospects for legal
\nreform would be brighter if there were, at least, a common
\nperception on the part of media professionals of what publishing
\nlicenses are. A more independent Association of Indonesian
\nJournalists would also be necessary, he says.<\/p>\n
When the current publishing license system was first proposed
\nin the late 1970s, the press itself was ambivalent about the
\nidea, Mulya Lubis says. \"They agreed (with authorities) that a
\npublishing license was desirable as a means of shielding
\npublishers from competition from big capital,\" Lubis says.<\/p>\n
In a 1991 study of the Indonesian press, media analyst Daniel
\nDhakidae discovered another view about the need for the SIUPP. He
\nquotes Tjuk Atmadi, a former director of the Ministry of
\nInformation's Press Guidance Directorate, as saying that
\n\"licensing provides protection for the press by excluding
\nadventurous and sensational publishers (from the print media).\"<\/p>\n
But if the publishing license system was introduced to protect
\nthe press from monopolization by big investors or from
\nsensationalism, neither aim has been achieved.<\/p>\n
\"The barrier became a boomerang,\" says Mulya Lubis.<\/p>\n
The current chairman of the Indonesian Journalists'
\nAssociation, Sofyan Lubis, confirms that media managers had not
\nreally anticipated the SIUPP being turned against them. At the
\ntime of its introduction, some publishers actually welcomed it as
\nan improvement on the previous licensing system, under which
\npermits known by the acronym SIT were issued.<\/p>\n
In 1974, under the SIT system, 12 publications were banned
\nfollowing the student protests during the visit of the then
\nJapanese Prime Minister, Kakuei Tanaka.<\/p>\n
Admiral (ret.) Sudomo, then Chief in Command for Restoration
\nof Security and Order subsequently promised SITs would no longer
\nbe required after the 1977 elections.<\/p>\n
But rather than simply abolishing publishing licenses, the
\ngovernment replaced the SIT with the SIUPP. This turned out to be
\nlittle more than a name change.<\/p>\n
Another lawyer, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, claims there are
\ncontradictions between the 1982 Press Act and the revocation
\nclause in the 1984 regulation:<\/p>\n
\"What is the use of the Press Act's hierarchy of those
\nresponsible for a publication, if the Minister of Information has
\nthe right to revoke a publishing permit?\" The 1994 Act stipulates
\nthe parties who are responsible for a publication's content, from
\nthe chief editor downwards.<\/p>\n
Soerjadi, Mulya Lubis and Abdul Hakim are among the legal
\nrepresentatives in the separate lawsuits filed by former chief
\neditor of Tempo magazine, Goenawan Mohamad, journalists, other
\nemployees of the banned publications, and former readers.<\/p>\n
The current lawsuits are part of a campaign to encourage the
\nuse of the courts to settle disputes over editorial content as an
\nalternative to press bans, Soerjadi says. For example, in 1988
\nthe government sued a staff editor of Berita Buana over the
\npublication of an article.<\/p>\n
Legal settlement<\/p>\n
The present chairman of the Indonesian Journalists'
\nAssociation (PWI) says that legal settlement, rather than the
\nsuspension of licenses, is also PWI's desired direction.<\/p>\n
\"It is only a matter of process,\" Sofyan Lubis stresses. His
\norganization strives, he says, to educate all parties,
\nparticularly reporters, about the role of the national press and
\nthe values it should adhere to.<\/p>\n
\"For instance, we cannot be like the press in America where
\nthe system and the ideology are different,\" he says.<\/p>\n
Chairman Lubis says that although PWI favors legal settlement,
\nit also supports the repeal of publishing licenses in certain
\ncircumstances.<\/p>\n
\"The press is not like any other business,\" Lubis says, adding
\nthat publications could be used to convey forbidden ideas.
\nHowever, last year's bannings did not fall within this category,
\nhe says.<\/p>\n
He stresses that because it is the government which issues
\npermits, publications should heed the rules, particularly
\nregarding a free and responsible press, as stated in the 1984
\nregulation.<\/p>\n
\"Just as long as the press does not `jump,' I am sure there is
\nno problem with openness,\" chairman Lubis said. \"Jumping\" or
\n\"going too far\", he explains, can result from the failure to
\nunderstand that the process towards openness is a slow one, and
\nthat reporting must be done carefully.<\/p>\n
According to Abdul Hakim the judiciary still lacks the courage
\nnecessary to make decisions inconsistent with basic government
\npolicies, including those allowing the revocation of publishing
\nlicenses.<\/p>\n
Soerjadi is similarly skeptical about the courts, but adds
\nthat the administration, too, is low on commitment to the rule of
\nlaw:<\/p>\n
\"It is not the public that doesn't care about the law, it is
\nthe government itself. It should be setting an example.\"
\n(anr\/lem)<\/p>",
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