Center provides facilities for historic session coverage

Center provides facilities for historic session coverage

JAKARTA (JP): Despite the sudden influx of new media
publications in this era of reform, the number of journalists
covering the General Session of the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) has nearly halved from the number that covered the
MPR's session last year, an official has said.

Head of the Assembly's public relations unit Eddie Siregar
said there were only 2,152 journalists who had registered to
cover this month's session -- one of the most crucial events that
decides the country's future.

The 21-day meeting has succeeded in electing Indonesia's
president and vice president in a democratic way which the
country has never seen before.

"It's really beyond our expectation. We had predicted more
journalists would be here covering these important events,
highlighted with heated debates and political dynamism," Siregar
told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

"We had more than 4,000 local and foreign journalists covering
the MPR session last year," he added.

Of the total 2,152 journalists covering the Assembly session,
that ended on Thursday, 1,180 were from the print media, 551 from
the electronic media and around 300 others were reporters from
overseas or who worked for foreign news agencies.

Since the downfall of former president Soeharto in May of last
year, the country has enjoyed greater freedom of the press which
has resulted in the birth of new newspapers, tabloids and
magazines.

Data from the Ministry of Information showed that until mid
1997, there were only 289 publications -- comprising of tabloids,
newspapers and magazines -- registered at the ministry.

The number, however, jumped to 1,267 in August of this year.

Siregar said the drop in the number of journalists in the
session, was probably caused by the announcement made earlier by
the assembly secretariat general which said that the session
would have been divided into two phases: the first from Oct. 1 to
Oct. 3., and the second from Oct. 22 to Oct. 28.

However, the first plenary session on Oct. 1 decided to change
the schedule so that the session would continue without a break.

To serve the journalists, the Assembly secretariat general set
up a media center in the Nusantara IV room where journalists
could immediately write their reports on the session.

Facilities such as computers, facsimile machines, telephone
lines and internet links were provided at the media center and
journalists could use them free of charge.

In running the media center, the session organizer was
supported by state-owned telecommunications operator PT Telkom
and PT Pos Indonesia.

"We have to get sponsorship apart from the available funds to
meet our limited budget. The companies help us in providing
computers and the networks," Siregar said but he declined to
disclose the size of the budget.

The Assembly organizers set certain rules that journalists
should abide by if they wanted to enter the MPR compound to cover
the sessions.

Photographers and TV crews should wear formal dress when the
president attended the session.

"Putting on t-shirts and jeans is not allowed in the Assembly
compound during the session," Siregar said, adding however, that
not all the rules and protocols could be met by journalists.

"We tried our best to remind them (journalists) to respect the
Assembly and the events taking place inside it by dressing
themselves properly. This is a much revered occasion," he told
the Post.

He said journalists would only obey the rules on outfits on
the first day of the session or when the president arrived at the
swearing-in ceremony.

He also complained about the improper behavior shown by some
journalists, especially the new and inexperienced ones, who
sometimes used harsh words to get quick service from the center's
officials or asked about too many trivial things.

"Many new publications sent new reporters here and most of
them had very little knowledge about the session. Too many things
were asked of us, even simple ones such as where the meeting room
for the Indonesian Military (TNI) faction was," he added. (emf)