Australian TV news

I have noticed that Australia TV News coverage (via satellite) on Indonesia has been tainted with misleading and stubbornly biased journalistic reporting.

For example, the hostage rescue in Irian Jaya was opened with: "A setback for the Irian Independence Movement...", the recent capture of PRD's leader Budiman Sudjatmiko was headlined on the screen with "Jakarta Unrest". And for the past few weeks, coverage on Indonesia has been accompanied with shots of past rioting, protests, and police beatings, giving a misleading impression of the real present situation here. I am not saying that all this did not happen. It certainly did, unfortunately, but this is not my point and that is another story.

Other foreign news services I follow via satellite, CNN, ABN and NBC at least update their news with more recent shots. And our own Indonesian self-censored reporting also provides more recent images.

What these reporters see and hear is what we get.

But with ATV News, what we get is ATV News editors' anti- Indonesian propaganda. This puts ATV News on the line for deliberately lying to the public by deliberately misleading the viewers' sub-conscience with outdated, provocative and antagonistic footage to distract from the real story behind the news.

Could the editors, or perhaps ATV's Jakarta correspondent Mr. Michael Maher, respond to this? Is it because Mr. Maher is unable to effectively get new and updated shots of the real current situation, or is it that Mr. Maher did get the shots but the editors back in Australia decided to go with the 'bleed for the lead' footage, or was it just because of the same old anti- Indonesian sentiment among Australian journalists which is just so strong that they do not even try to report in an objective and fair manner anymore. Forgetting that they are shirking their responsibility to uphold the journalistic ethos and professionalism of the free world.

This is unfortunate for ATV News (ABC News) because in future, people, including myself, will not refer to ATV News as a reliable alternative foreign news source, which is a highly needed and sought after thing in times such as these.

BAHARIAWAN K.T.

Jakarta