A wise pen is still mightier than the sword

Endy M. Bayuni, Deputy Chief Editor, The Jakarta Post, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The media in Indonesia has come under fire once again. Unlike the Soeharto years, when the attacks came directly from the government, this time it is coming from the wealthy and the powerful in league with the courts -- their battleground of choice. Sadly, the media rarely wins these "legal" tussles. And amazingly, journalists and editors are now responding in the same fashion as they always did during the Soeharto era whenever they came under attack: Duck for cover, play it safe.

Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, the former chairman of the Press Council, said he already had the sense that this series of court defeats was intimidating journalists and undermining the freedom of the media, according to a report by The Jakarta Post last week. "They force journalists into self-censorship. The media no longer dares to speak out for public interests," he was quoted as saying during a seminar on the state of press freedom in Indonesia.

Self-censorship is something that all professional editors do each day. Keeping in mind space constraints, editors take out what is not relevant and/or deemed indecent. We publish or broadcast what we feel is in the interest of the public. There is nothing wrong with self-censorship in and of itself. But Atmakusumah was clearly referring to the insidious habit that most of us indulged in during the Soeharto years: Taking out what is relevant to public interests, just to stay on the good side of the powerful and wealthy.

The threat of an expensive, financially crippling lawsuit is enough to force most of the media in Indonesia into submission. Understandably, most are operating on shoestring budgets. Only a few media groups in Indonesia have the kind of money that our predators demand in terms of compensation in the courts.

For most of the media, losing a major lawsuit has a similar impact as Soeharto's threat to rescind our press licenses a decade ago: Closure. It should come as no surprise then that many editors and journalists have simply resorted to reporting inconsequential news as a result of fear and self-censorship.

The nature of the attacks against the press are also different today: In the court room. As far as the Indonesian justice system is concerned, the wealthy and the powerful are winning their court battles. Of course, they are helped along the way by their highly paid, but often sleazy lawyers, and I suspect, they are in collusion with judges.

They have even hijacked "the rule of law", one of the battle cries that we in the media helped popularize at the start of the reform era six years ago, and turned it into a weapon to fight against us. Now, they too are using the buzzwords of the reform movement.

The media is never going to win this fight if it keeps whining about how the law of the land is not protecting them. The 1999 Press Law, with all its imperfections, still provides us with far greater protection than we ever had before. And the amended Constitution provides clearer guarantees for us in going about our business.

Is the sword actually mightier than the pen in Indonesia, even in this era of democracy where freedom of the press is supposedly guaranteed?

There are a few things that we could do to turn things around in our favor. To win this battle, we need to move the focus of the war away from the courtrooms, where we seem to be consistently losing.

The media needs to improve the skill and professionalism of journalists. This is an absolute requirement. Some, though not all, of the lawsuits brought before the court were caused by sloppy journalism. The message is clear: A mistake can be costly. And sloppy journalism is a disservice to the profession. Keep this up, and pretty soon we lose our credibility and the trust of the people, and before long, our freedom.

Many print and broadcasting media, as well as professional organizations, have conducted training seminars and workshops in recent years to improve the professionalism of their newsrooms. A quick glance at their coverage today, however, suggests that we still have some way to go. Investigative journalism, increasingly an important function of the profession in today's complex world, is one area where more training is needed because this is where the media is most vulnerable to libel lawsuits.

The media community must also fight for the passage of the freedom of information act, currently held up in the House of Representatives. This would be more important than amending the 1999 Press Law. Such a law would assist journalists in getting closer to the truth in their reporting, particularly when conducting investigative reporting.

Finally, the media must treat this battle as part of a wider campaign to preserve democracy. Freedom of the press/media is really a subset of the freedom of expression and opinion. These recent attacks against the media should be seen as part of a larger conspiracy by the rich and powerful to deny the people their right to freely express their views or opinions. As long as the media treats this as simply a threat to its own freedom, then we will be fighting this battle alone with little support of the public.

The media must stop treating itself as part of the elite, the way it has been in recent years. It must see itself and function as part of the public. It must act in the interest of the public, as a conduit to defend the weak, powerless and the marginalized.

When an editor and a reporter of Tempo magazine were attacked by a gang of thugs last year, the media immediately responded by launching a campaign to wage a war against thuggery. The campaign never really got off the ground, the public response was lukewarm, and Tempo journalists lost their cases in court.

What went wrong? For most people in Indonesia, thuggery has been around for centuries. They have felt the brunt of the violent and arbitrary behavior of such thugs for a long time. Such a campaign would have been more effective, and certainly would have won wider public support, if it was launched in response to thuggery in general, and not simply narrowed down to the attacks on two Tempo journalists.

It is probably unrealistic to expect the media in Indonesia to unite in fighting their predators. Some of the big media institutions, particularly the TV stations, are owned by members of that wealthy, powerful clique. But the really concerned media, those who profess to serve the public interest, must unite with the people it claims to represent, and fight the battles together.

We owe our existence, and hence our freedom today, to them. Let us not underestimate our own power and capability if we act in unison.

The pen is still mightier than the sword. But only if we are use it wisely.

The writer is currently studying at Harvard University under a Nieman Foundation fellowship, with funding from the Ford Foundation and the Asia Foundation.