Australian media called critical but not hostile

JAKARTA (JP): The Australian press should be perceived as critical but not hostile towards Indonesia, said an Australia- Indonesia Institute board member.

"I personally do not think that is the case," replied former Australian Ambassador Richard Woolcott, the chairman of the institute.

Responding to questions from the Indonesian media on the attitude of the Australian press towards Indonesia, Woolcott maintained that the two countries' media have different approaches based on the nature of their distinct societies.

These differences in approach often generate misperceptions.

Woolcott spoke to journalists yesterday to review the institutes' board meeting held in Jakarta.

The Australia-Indonesia Institute was set up in 1989 to foster better people-to-people relations between the two countries.

While here, the board have conducted several meetings and met with Indonesian officials like Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas.

The institute sponsors media exchanges and scholarship for journalists.

Woolcott acknowledged that following the Dili incident in November 1991, Indonesia received a lot of negative publicity in Australia.

The military clashed with pro-independence demonstrators in Dili on Nov. 11, 1991. Some 50 people were killed in melee.

"After 1991 there was a natural focus on East Timor, but three years later the media has a much broader approach," Woolcott said.

With an increasing number of Australian correspondents in Indonesia, Woolcott said there is bound to be a greater variety of reporting going to Australia.

Dan O'Sullivan, former chief editor of the West Australian, revealed that in his past meetings with Indonesian officials there had been no requests for the Australian press to tone down their criticism.

There is no desire for the Australian press not to be critical, he said yesterday. He added that infringements should be reported objectively.

He said Indonesian officials only ask that the Australian press not consciously adopt an unfriendly or hostile attitude towards Indonesia.

The reporting should be accurate and fair, O'Sullivan remarked.

Several articles published in Australia, however, have soured relations between the two countries. The most serious was an April 10, 1986 article in the Sydney Morning Herald which many Indonesians considered a direct insult to President Soeharto.

Indonesia retaliated by canceling a planed trip by Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, and asserted the need for Australian journalists, unlike tourists, to obtain a visa before entering the country. (mds)