Activists slam plan to revise Press Law

Activists slam plan to revise Press Law

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Media activists criticized over the weekend a plan to revise the
Press Law, saying the move would likely curtail press freedom.

Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) chairman Eddy
Suprapto said the government and the House of Representatives had
no logical argument to support the revision of Law No. 40/1999 on
the press.

"There would be nothing wrong with revising the law as long as
it aimed at improvements, but we must question this. The
government and legislators decided to revise the Press Law after
complaining that the country's press has been kebablasan," he
told The Jakarta Post Saturday.

Kebablasan is Javanese for an action that has gone beyond the
sense of appropriateness.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has on several occasions said
that the press had gone overboard after some media criticized her
through caricatures and articles.

At least two editors of Rakyat Merdeka daily, known for its
tabloid-style journalism, have been sued for insulting Megawati
and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

"It is illogical for people to blame the Press Law when they
can't face media criticism. It's not the law that must be
revised, but their perception of the media," Eddy said.

Press Council member Hinca Panjaitan also rejected the move to
revise articles that would affect press freedom.

"Revision is mandatory only if it aims at improving the law.
Otherwise, it would be a historical setback," said Panjaitan, who
admitted that the Press Law needed revision to guarantee press
freedom.

The government and the House agreed last week to revise the
Press Law.

Among articles to be revised is the one on the Press Council's
function in mediating in disputes between the media and members
of society as both the government and the House presume the
council will favor the press in disputes.

The selection of the Press Council members is also another
topic that both the government and the House agreed to revise.
The House has demanded that candidates for the Press Council be
screened by the House, as with other state commissions.

State Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul
Mu'arif, who has often complained that media hype violates the
country's norms, said last Friday that the Press Law was too
lenient.

Unless the Press Law stipulates heavier sentences, he said,
the Criminal Code is used for cases involving the press.

Eddy alleged that both the government and the House were
merely aiming at limiting the media's role in providing
information for the public.

"It is clear that the spirit of the initiative to revise (the
law) is to punish the media," he said.

The prevailing law bans draconian measures against the media
such as closing down a media outfit for political reasons, which
was successfully applied by the New Order regime to suppress the
press for over three decades.

It also guarantees independence of the Press Council by
letting media organizations select its members without involving
either the government or the House.

However, the law is said to have some serious flaws. While it
requires the media to publish objections, it does not oblige the
public to exercise their right to demand an explanation in the
event of misreporting.

The Press Law has articles detailing steps to be taken in out-
of-court settlements before a person decides to take a case to
court. It also orders the Press Council to mediate in disputes
between the members of the public and the media.

Some businesspeople and state officials, and their lawyers,
have noted the flaws and have chosen to use the Criminal Code to
settle disputes with the media.

The government prefers to use the Criminal Code -- an
inheritance from Dutch colonial rulers -- which does not have a
specific article on the press, to settle disputes involving the
media.

"I don't think they understand about the media, the media
business or the media law. Words must be faced by words, not
punishment. Press reports are not illegal flyers whose producers
are unknown," Panjaitan said.