Fake journalists and press integrity

Ignatius Haryanto, Jakarta

The Jakarta Post cover story on March 20 about bogus journalism was very interesting.

I agree with the Post's thesis that the practice of bogus journalism has found fertile soil in Indonesia, where corruption is so widespread, and the people's ignorance about this issue will effect the integrity of the press. By illustrating some examples of bogus, or "envelope journalism", many readers will have a clearer picture of how this kind of journalism works and why the phenomenon is such a delicate one.

One of the factors behind bogus journalism is the low salaries of journalists, creating a situation where journalists demand money for their transportation and other needs, since their company cannot afford to pay them a decent salary. It is unbelievable that a media company can operate without being able to pay its workers a living wage.

According to a survey by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) on "envelope journalism", most regional governments budget some money for regional media coverage and for an annual contribution to a particular journalists' association. In addition, regional governments have to provide partial support for the state news agency and the state television and radio stations.

The term used to describe these payments in the budget is "propaganda, information and documentation". Money for journalists also can be taken from the "operational budgets" of government officials.

Another study conducted by the Surabaya branch of AJI in 2000, found that only 13.8 percent (36 journalists) of 276 journalists received a salary of more than Rp 1 million a month. Most of the respondents were paid between Rp 250,000 and Rp 500,000 a month (94 journalist, or 34.1 percent of total respondents).

The local minimum wage at that time was Rp 236,000 a month, so although most of the respondents were paid above the minimum wage, they still did not earn enough to cover their daily needs.

AJI has initiated a program to draft a new media code of practice, inviting media companies to sit down together and come up with a new code for both the print and electronic media.

This initiative is extremely important for everyone in the media. Concern over the integrity of the media is shared by everyone involved in the initiative, and they all realize that it is better to be self-regulated than have regulations imposed on the media from the outside.

Work on the new code began in the middle of March and will continue until the beginning of May 2005. Hopefully, the result will be a new media code of practice.

One of the speakers at this marathon meeting, Kees Bertens, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Atma Jaya University, underlined the status of the profession as a moral community, equipped with a code of ethics. According to Bertens, a code of ethics would also protect public against abuse by journalists.

At the same meeting, I shared my study of public complaints to the Indonesian Press Council from 2000 to 2002. The study showed that most public complaints were related to inaccuracy in reporting and a failure to cover both sides of stories. Those are basic problems of Indonesian journalists, and they are also basic requirements for journalists to do their job.

There are lots of things that need to be done to improve the quality and integrity of the press in Indonesia. Beside revising the media code of practice, some effort must be made to provide basic journalism training for journalists, improve their knowledge of media ethics and last but not least, oblige media owners to pay their journalists proper salaries.

Without a combination of such actions, we cannot hope that the Indonesian press will gain more respect from the public in the future.

The writer is a media researcher at the Institute of Press and Development Studies in Jakarta, and a steering committee coordinator for the Alliance of Independent Journalists' Media Congress. He can be reached at ignh@yahoo.com.