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