Govt blasted for dominating the flow of information

Govt blasted for dominating the flow of information

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Communication experts are criticizing the
government for "dominating" the flow of information to society,
in an effort to shape public opinion to its advantage.

Novel Ali of Semarang-based Diponegoro University, Harsono
Suwardi of the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia and a number
of other experts attending the third congress of the Association
of Indonesian Communication Experts here yesterday agreed that
this dominance places the campaigns for democracy and press
freedom in jeopardy.

Harsono particularly blamed the government for dominating and
even abusing the mass media. He pointed out that the political
elite's messages currently receive undue coverage in the mass
media, while those coming from the people are often discarded.

The unfairness creates conflicts and obstructs communication
flow, so that the powerful elites and the people don't see eye to
eye, Harsono told 300 participants gathered at the Gadjah Mada
University campus.

The congress was opened on Thursday by Minister of Information
Harmoko and featured Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman
Djojonegoro as key speaker. It is scheduled to conclude today.

Harsono said one of the media's functions is to educate.
Whether it can do so successfully depends on the quality of the
media's products, namely the news.

"The media trains people to be critical of any obscurity in
messages sent by either the power holders or by social-political
organizations," he said. When the people become very critical,
however, the power holders then blame the mass media, he said.

He conceded that the critical stance toward many government
policies, which indicates a certain degree of democratization, is
often interpreted as a threat to the political order, which
strives to maintain security and stability.

He suggested that the press continue performing its duty, but
in a way which does not alienate the power holders. "The press'
criticism helps achieve a clean and respectable government, but
it shouldn't be given without a certain degree of restraint," he
said.

"A good and constructive press knows its boundaries," he said.

Novel Ali compared Indonesia to a number of "democratic
states" in which the government keeps its hands off the flow of
information in order to create a balanced public opinion. "Here,
the power holders attempt to monopolize people's opinion," he
said.

"This creates a condition where 'crimes' of political
communication abound, perpetrated by the official government
media, especially the state television station TVRI and radio
station RRI," Ali said.

The fact that private television and radio stations pick up
state-produced news facilitates the government's attempt to
dominate the process of public opinion making, he pointed out.

"The Indonesian press, both print and electronic, are nothing
more than the government press, government bulletins," he said.

"The media works only as a channel of information from the top
to the bottom layers of society, rather than as a bottom-up
information channel."

"In this situation, people are deceived by the press," he
added. "If this goes on, political communication is obstructed,
and our people become mere objects of the power holders."

The congress also featured prominent experts A.A Muis of the
Hasanuddin University in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, and Andre
Hardjana of the University of Indonesia.

Muis discussed at length the bill on broadcasting currently
being deliberated by the House of Representatives. He said the
government is trying to restrict the freedom of the press through
the bill.

"This bill should not be passed," he said. (har/06/31)