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)