Amendment of press law to rest on new cabinet

By Warief Djajanto Basorie

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Information R. Hartono has hinted at a possible review of the press regulation under which a number of media have been closed down, but their fate will not be clear until after March.

Ignatius Haryanto argued in his article in the Dec. 30 edition of this newspaper that Indonesia's press law of 1982 must be reviewed because it does not provide security to the print media. The call for a review is not so much on the law itself but on the regulation for the implementation of the law -- the 1984 information minister's regulation on the business permits of press publications (SIUPP).

Editors are not against the law per se but the 1984 regulation.

Haryanto pointed out that the regulation allowed the then information minister Harmoko to close three news weeklies, Tempo, Editor and DeTik, in June 1994. The writer cited section VII on penalties, specifically article 33, clause h, as the vehicle the minister used to withdraw the publishing permits of the magazines.

The article raised a question on the issue of clause h, which states that the information minister can revoke a publishing permit if the National Press Council considers that a press organization, in its publication activities, does not reflect a "healthy, free and responsible press".

The council is a Ministry of Information-affiliated body assigned to advise the information minister on ways to develop the press industry. Its membership consists of media leaders, government officials and experts, with the minister as its chairman.

Clause h is the root of the prevailing insecurity of Indonesia's press industry as the government can rescind the license of a newspaper or magazine without giving any chance for the publication to defend itself.

What raises concern is the lack of criteria by which a news publication is considered as healthy, free and responsible.

As neither the press law nor its related regulation provides a definition on healthy, free and responsible press, the government is criticized for having used its own yardstick when it canceled permits.

Purnama Kusumaningrat, a former editor of the Pelita daily, said in a hearing with the House of Representatives in June 1991 that article 33, in referring to clause h, is "an elastic article" which is open to broad interpretation.

In discussing this point, Tempo editor Goenawan Mohamad raised a question in the June 22, 1991, edition of the magazine -- three years before the magazine was closed -- whether the government had the right to assume for itself the doctrine of infallibility in the same way as the Pope assumed for the Roman Catholic Church.

Although Indonesia's reading public lost three articulate news weeklies, one good thing came out of their closure. It created an open debate on the fairness and validity of unilateral revocation of publication permits.

Goenawan later challenged the legality of the permit withdrawal of his magazine in the Jakarta administrative court.

Although Goenawan lost his case when the Supreme Court ruled against him in June 1996, sections of the press in commentaries and panel discussions have called for the amendment of the 1984 regulation.

They demand that the government seek a court's approval before revoking a publication permit. In other words, a news organization should be able to seek judicial protection if the government intends to revoke a press license.

Sentiment for such an amendment was so strong that it was one of the first questions reporters raised to Army Chief General Hartono in June 1997, when President Soeharto appointed him as new information minister to replace Harmoko.

In his first statement as information minister, Hartono nimbly skirted the amendment issue invoking the authority of the President instead. After his first meeting with Soeharto as information minister on June 18, Hartono said the government would not act arbitrarily on matters concerning the publication permit. The President emphasized this point, Hartono said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Journalists Association's secretary general, Parni Hadi, said in a discussion in Yogyakarta on Dec. 29, that his association wanted the 1984 regulation amended so that the withdrawal of a press license could only be done by court order.

Apparently, any likely move for amendment is on hold until after March. The People's Consultative Assembly will convene from March 1 to March 12 to elect the president and vice president for the 1998-2003 term. The president will then form a cabinet by the end of March.

Whether the press law and related regulations will be amended will rest in the hands of the minister of information in the new cabinet.

The writer is a lecturer at the Dr. Sutomo Press Institute, Jakarta.