Discourtesy toward journalists

My wife and I have three teenage children whom we encourage to take an interest in social, economic and political science. We tell them to read various newspapers and magazines that often publish news and articles covering the above subjects.

Recently, our children complained about the quality of interviews with state officials and political party figures. The interviews were disconcerting.

One example is a Harian Terbit journalist's interview with PDI (Indonesian Democratic Party) chairman Soerjadi (Oct.15, page 1). Some of the reporter's questions were not clearly answered. Also, some answers did not correspond with the questions, and other answers were confusing.

The reporter should have asked the interviewee to answer in line with the question. Otherwise, in my opinion, the article will be unreadable.

For the sake of the future of our children and all Indonesian people, I ask that this complaint is taken seriously by the printed and electronic media. Otherwise, Harian Terbit and other newspapers only cause people to waste their time.

I would further request that state officials and political and economic experts do not speak condescendingly to journalists during interviews, as if the latter were dumb.

This phenomenon, often seen on television and printed in newspapers, creates a bad example for our children and Indonesian children in general, considering that these youngsters are Indonesia's next generation.

PETER LAW

Jakarta