Govt asks media to jointly outline rules
Govt asks media to jointly outline rules
Kurniawan Hari
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
The government has called on media organizations to sit down with
government officials to formulate regulations necessary to create
what it calls as responsible media.
State Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul
Mu'arif said here on Wednesday that "irresponsible" acts by
certain media outfits had prompted the public at large to take
the law into their own hands.
"We have to create a regulation that can develop a national
media with specific character," Syamsul said when opening a
seminar titled Media Responsibility in Creating National Culture
on Wednesday.
More and more media organizations were publishing and
broadcasting pornographic and racist news articles and pictures,
he said.
The minister did not mention those that had deliberately
disseminated pornographic and racist articles or pictures, but
the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) pointed out earlier that
state-owned TV station TVRI's Dansa yo Dansa, private station
SCTV's Majalah X, and Metro TV's Life and Love contained
suggestive content.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of National
Education are currently drafting an anti-pornography bill.
Airing or publishing material deemed offensive could get
suspects charged under Article 282 of the Criminal Code
pertaining to decency standards.
The government had planned to limit the number of non-
professional mass media by imposing dozens of articles in the
Criminal Code, which could bring the press under control, and
curtail the incidence of racy pictures and material, character
assassination, unlawful ads and bogus journalists (those who
pretend to be journalists to extort money).
Minister Syamsul warned in March that the government would
take stiff measures against the broadcasting or publication of
sexually suggestive images.
"Law enforcers will take strict action (against media
publishing or airing sexually suggestive material). The
government is therefore issuing a warning in advance. Action will
be taken by law enforcers (police)," he said earlier.
Syamsul said on Wednesday that the regulation would not
curtail press freedom, but harness and protect the national
media's function in education, national unity, culture and public
interest.
Syamsul said that the regulations to be imposed on the
professional media would be discussed by journalists, academics,
and social observers.
Meanwhile, senior journalist Djafar Assegaff said that the
national media should carry out its freedom responsibly.
Citing Code of Ethics of the American Society of Newspaper
Editors (1923), a statement of principles of the American Society
of Newspaper Editors (1975), and Sigma Delta Chi (1973), Djafar
said that all of them put responsibility as the top priority for
newspapers to comply with.
Media observer Sasa Djuarsa of the University of Indonesia
said that the increasing number of feisty media publications that
showed racy pictures was normal in the reform era because it had
been under the full control of repressive governments since
independence.
"The people are smart enough now to make a selection," said
Sasa, expressing optimism that the people at large would not be
easily duped by smear campaigns.