Expert warns against moves to gag freedom of the media
Expert warns against moves to gag freedom of the media
JAKARTA (JP): A senior media observer urged media workers and
the public on Monday to keep an eye out for any moves that could
curtail media freedom.
Dr. Soetomo Press Institute director Atmakusumah Astraatmadja
said the newfound freedom enjoyed by mass media workers over the
past six months "has reached a point of no return".
He said that while a return to media control of a degree
similar to that under the previous government was unlikely, "the
struggle for media freedom is not over yet".
"Legally, freedom has yet to be guaranteed," he said in a
discussion on media freedom here.
Atmakusumah is one of dozens of media workers grouped in the
recently formed Indonesian Press Society, which aggressively
lobbied factions in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to
pass a decree on freedom of information during last week's
Special Session.
Their hopes were only realized in the inclusion of a
stipulation on citizen's rights to information in a decree on
human rights. "There should have been a special decree
guaranteeing media freedom," Atmakusumah said.
He argued against the notion that free mass media could become
uncontrollable, using as an example the United States and
Thailand where media freedom is constitutionally guaranteed.
Atmakusumah also urged media workers to continue to apply
pressure to guarantee press freedom in the General Session of the
People's Consultative Assembly planned for after next year's
general election.
"Don't depend on a government official's liberal attitude
(concerning media freedom)," warned Atmakusumah, a former
journalist of the defunct Indonesia Raya daily. The daily was
banned twice, both under the regimes of founding president
Sukarno in the 1960s and Soeharto in the 1970s.
Minister of Information M. Yunus, an active Army lieutenant
general, has much been credited for his "liberal" stance on the
country's mass media compared to years of suppression.
According to Atmakusumah, today's newfound media freedom was a
fruit of people's struggle, chiefly of media workers, over the
past 254 years. Quoting press history records, he said
suppression of the press dated back to a time when a newspaper
was first published in Indonesia.
The much-cited press "honeymoon" in the country, from 1965 to
1974, Atmakusumah said, was actually unfounded.
"There was no press banning that time, but leftist newspapers
were barred from publishing," he argued.
He warned media workers and the public to monitor the
development of a mass media draft bill currently being worked on
by the government.
Atmakusumah revealed that the current government-sponsored
draft of a media bill contained at least 13 articles that empower
the government to control the media through regulations.
The Press Society has drafted its own bill in an attempt to
prevent the government-drafted bill being passed by the House of
Representatives. (aan)