Govt aid won't bias the press, says PWI

Govt aid won't bias the press, says PWI

Rusman, The Jakarta Post/Balikpapan

The East Kalimantan provincial government has recently channeled
Rp 25 million (US$2,659) in aid to an important journalist
association in the province but denies it is an attempt to
influence media coverage.

Provincial council budget committee member Ridwan Suwidi said
the payout to the Indonesia Journalist Association's (PWI) East
Kalimantan chapter was part of a Rp 3.7 million additional budget
fund from the 2004 provincial budget.

He denied the fund was being used to curb journalists'
scrutiny of councillors and the East Kalimantan provincial
government.

The media's job was to criticize the government and the
councillors, he said, and many publications who received
government money were happy to continue doing so.

"Some media organizations are no longer critical after they are
given money by the government. However, it depends on the media
organizations themselves. The fund is not binding," he said.

PWI East Kalimantan chairman Sofyan Masykur confirmed his
organization, which has some 200 members, accepted the Rp 25
million payout. He said the PWI would use the fund to cover the
overhead costs of running the PWI's secretariat, and would not
spread it to its members.

The funding would not affect the impartiality of journalists
in writing stories on governance issues in the province, he said.

"It is natural that the PWI, the oldest journalist association
in the country, accepts the fund. The fund will not impinge on
our (members') independence from the government," Sofyan said.

Sofyan said his organization did not accept the money every
year.

Another recipient of the funding is a media publication on the
environment published by several local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), which received Rp 40 million (US$4,255).