Australian media called critical but not hostile

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)