Free press and totalitarianism

Free press and totalitarianism

I was interested to read Arya Gunawan's article, Indonesian
press: Walking a tightrope, in the May 14 edition of The Jakarta
Post. While he rightly states that in a democracy a free press
provides the public with the information it needs to make
decisions about their lives, the use of a quote from Walter
Lippman to support his argument shows, rather worryingly, that
some in even the Indonesian media industry have yet to emerge
from the darkness of totalitarianism.

Walter Lippman, as a theorist on liberal democracy, rather
unflatteringly labeled the public, which Arya Gunawan is saying
journalists should serve, the "bewildered herd". Lippman wanted
the masses, with what he termed their "trampling and roaring",
turned into "spectators" whose consent would be manufactured by
propaganda. His aim was to ensure that a small, specialized elite
would make and execute the nation's social, political and
economic decisions. While his aim has been achieved in the U.S.,
it is abundantly clear he is no friend of true democracy.

The Indonesian press needs to be more astute in choosing its
friends and allies if it is to get both to the end of the
tightrope and out of the tunnel.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Jakarta