AJI sees scant improvement for journalism in 2002

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The year 2002 will end for Indonesian journalism with hardly any improvements on news quality and press freedom, as reports of slack professionalism, violence against reporters and inadequate access to information have prevailed this year, said a report.

A year-end report by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) issued on Saturday depicts the same maladies journalism has suffered here since press freedom was reclaimed after the 1998 political upheaval that ousted the New Order regime.

"Frequent violence against journalists, the high number of violations of the journalism code of ethics, state policies that clearly do not side with press freedom, threats over the freedom to set up labor unions and the risk of lay-offs; this was the face of journalism in 2002...," said a statement by AJI.

It said that over the past year, reporters endured 65 cases of various threats, 39 of which were physical.

"It's worth noting that of the 65 cases, only 5 percent of the perpetrators were brought to trial," AJI said, adding that almost all of the cases had been reported to the police.

The police, however, led in the number of reported violent acts against journalists for the third consecutive year, it said, although that number fell from 19 cases in 2001, to 18 in 2000, and to 17 in 1999. This year, the number of cases stood at 14.

Legislators and/or council members were allegedly involved in 11 cases of violence against reporters, up from only five last year.

One case involved last month's beating of Volare radio reporter Rizal Ardiansyah. A local council member and his supporters reportedly attacked the journalist in response to media reports of bribery among council members in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

Another threat against journalism was what appeared to be a government attempt to restrict press freedom, AJI said, citing last month's passing of the broadcasting law, despite protests from television station companies, as an example.

Although the law was an improvement over the previous one, it includes articles that smack of censorship, AJI said.

"AJI's views are that the articles on broadcasting permits should be replaced with permits for frequency usage, because broadcasting implies the content of a media coverage -- it means censorship," the alliance said, adding that this violated the 1999 press law.

Also contradicting the 1999 press law was the recently issued anti-terrorism regulation, which bans the withholding of information. The press law, however, allows reporters to withhold the names of their sources.

Meanwhile, local governments have established various regional communication and information bureaus, some of which attempt to "control" the dissemination of information.

The quality of journalism also remains questionable, with the selling of sex tabloids and news reporting that verges on sensationalism with complete disregard of accuracy and objectivity, said AJI.

Television shows depicting brutal and often vulgar scenes of police operations were a blatant attempt at pursuing ratings as opposed to substance, it further said.

According to AJI, the outlook for 2003 is gloomy. With terrorism taking center stage, debates over the bills on state secrecy and anti-terrorism would likely put on hold the passing of the bill on public access to information.