Government sticks to its guns on licensing reporters
Government sticks to its guns on licensing reporters
JAKARTA (JP): The government's offer to subsidize newsprint
for cash-strapped newspapers and magazines apparently comes with
a catch: the presence of a professional body which controls
journalists by accreditation.
While newspaper editors and publishers have hardly batted an
eyelid, mass communications experts said yesterday that the move
was an attempt by President B.J. Habibie to curb press freedom.
Ashadi Siregar of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta said
the gesture "signaled the return of a fascist spirit in the
government."
"It is clearly aimed at restricting the freedom of the press,"
Ashadi, who heads the Institute of Research, Education and
Publication, told The Jakarta Post by phone.
He said he was puzzled that the government had devised such a
scheme during this era of reformation.
"Whether a journalist is professional or not should be decided
by their own media institutions," he said.
Habibie first proposed the use of a licensing system for
journalists as a means to promote and ensure professionalism
during a meeting with newspaper publishers last week.
The secretary-general of the Association of Indonesian
Journalists (PWI), Parni Hadi, who related Habibie's plan after
the meeting, said the President had likened journalism to the
medical profession, where a doctor must have a license to
practice.
On Monday, Minister of Trade and Industry Rahardi Ramelan took
Habibie's plan one step further by tying it to the government's
offer to waive the 15 percent value added tax on newsprint to
assist newspapers and magazines, Kompas reported yesterday.
The price of locally produced newsprint is set in dollars
because it uses imported recycled newspaper as a raw material.
Its price has tripled in rupiah terms in tandem with the falling
value of the Indonesian currency over the past year.
With advertising revenues also plunging, most publishers have
made drastic cuts to try to survive the economic crisis.
Goenawan Mohamad, the director of the Institute for Studies on
the Free Flow of Information, called the government's proposal to
license journalists "pathetic" and "a major set back".
"Journalists don't run private practices like doctors. They
work for a newspaper, a radio station or television. Editors are
responsible for the quality of journalists," Goenawan said.
"Journalism is an open profession, and people with different
educational backgrounds can become journalists. It is not like
doctors who must go to a medical school to qualify," he added.
Goenawan was editor of Tempo news magazine which lost its
publishing license in 1994 after reporting on a row between
Habibie, then state minister of research and technology, and
former minister of finance Mar'ie Muhammad over the escalating
cost of purchasing secondhand warships from Germany.
Tempo has now been given a new license by Habibie's government
and is scheduled to reappear in the next few months.
M. Budyatna, a mass communications expert from University of
Indonesia, warned that the licensing mechanism was open to
government manipulation.
The agency entrusted with the accreditation could be very
subjective, he said. "The government should leave market forces
to determine the professionalism of journalists," he added. (byg)