Fake journalists and press integrity

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.