Indonesian press needs to face its own public

Indonesian press needs to face its own public

Janet Steele, Associate Professor, School of Media and Public Affairs,
George Washington University

A few years ago at the annual Fulbright conference in
Yogyakarta, I heard Professor Daniel Lev describe a personal
"epiphany" that he had experienced many years ago when, as a
graduate student doing research in Indonesia, he came to the
surprising realization that young Indonesian men and young
American men viewed sex in exactly the same way.

Perhaps my personal epiphany occurred in 1997 when, as a
Fulbright professor in the American Studies program at the
University of Indonesia, I agreed to meet with a group of mid-
level reporters and editors at Media Indonesia on a weekly basis
in order to talk about journalism. To my great surprise, I
realized that even during the New Order, Indonesian and American
journalists shared almost exactly the same understanding of what
makes journalism "good."

The values of good journalism are not a secret: They are
accuracy, objectivity, fairness, balance, and independence. So
many of the recent problems with the press in Indonesia come from
the perception that journalists are not acting "responsibly." The
problem is that the idea of press "responsibility" was perverted
during the New Order to mean "responsibility to government
authorities."

Today, in this new era of press freedom, to whom is the press
responsible? To the public. And who should be enforcing these
good journalistic values? Journalists themselves.

In a democracy, the government doesn't enforce the rules of
good journalism. Instead, reporters and editors regulate
themselves through the application of their own professional
ethics and values.

This is happening today in Indonesia. Institutions like the
Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information (ISAI), the
Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Yogyakarta
Insitution for Research, Education and Publication (LP3Y) provide
advanced training for journalists. News organizations have
created ombudsmen and media watches that respond directly to the
concerns of the public. And of course the Press Council, under
the guiding hand of Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, has made great
strides towards peacefully resolving disputes between the press
and the public. Each of these institutions has the capacity to
serve the public interest and deserves our wholehearted support.

But there are still many challenges facing the press today,
many of which are the unfortunate legacy of the New Order. We see
these challenges in the reporting on Aceh, and in the idea that a
responsible press must be "patriotic" or "nationalistic," even at
the cost of not reporting on the truth. We also see these
challenges in the rise of thuggery (premanisme), and in the
recent physical attacks on journalists. These attacks are both
frightening and inexcusable.

In a democracy, the press exists to serve the public. For most
of the New Order, discussions about press responsibility were
conducted between the press and the government, and the public
was not involved. It was as if the press, the government, and the
people were all seated in huge auditorium. The government was
high up on the stage, and the press was seated in the first few
rows. The public was in the back. The press and the government
were engaged in a dialog, but the public was silent. They were
left completely out of the conversation. This situation has had
very serious consequences.

The greatest challenge facing Indonesian journalists today is
the need to "turn around" -- to face the public, and include them
in the conversation.

For too long during the New Order, the public had no
legitimate means of channeling its aspirations. As a result, the
people expressed themselves through demonstrations, riots, and
worse. It is now up to the press to help create new means of
listening to and responding to the public's concerns. And it is
the responsibility of all of us to create new channels to bring
the public back into the dialogue, and to work to educate
citizens about the vital role of the press in a democracy.

In authoritarian regimes, governments fear the truth. During
the history of the New Order, most clamp-downs on the press
occurred not because the press published falsehoods, but because
the press published the truth. Today, in this era of reformasi,
most officials agree with the idea that the press should be
allowed to do its job, seeking the truth and providing vital
information to the people.

Yet, there are still some people who seem to think that a news
story is more dangerous if it is true; that if a publication
reports on the facts, and if readers use these facts to draw
their own conclusions, that the press is somehow at fault. That
the press is acting irresponsibly. Wasn't this the thinking of
the New Order? That the press should not report on certain types
of incidents because the truth might lead to social unrest or
hinder development?

The problem with this way of thinking is that it makes
journalists afraid to do their job. Social problems remain
hidden, and journalists practice self-censorship. And the public
is left in the dark.

Do we as citizens really think that the truth is more
dangerous than falsehood? As citizens of democracies, we need to
support journalists who are doing their job. We need to speak
out, and to remind one another that it is the responsibility of
journalists to seek out the truth and to report on it.
Journalists should be held accountable for what actually appears
on the page -- not for the conclusions that exist only in the
minds of their readers.

What we as citizens can ask of journalists is that they act
honorably, do their jobs to the best of their ability, and work
in compliance with the rules of their profession. It is the
responsibility of journalists to report on the truth. If they are
doing this, they are doing their job -- and we as citizens are
the beneficiaries. The fact that the truth may sometimes lead to
disagreements and even to political conflict is the greatest
challenge as well as the greatest opportunity of living in a
democracy.

In the words of James Madison, author of the American Bill of
Rights, "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people
who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the
power which knowledge gives."

The article was presented at a one-day seminar on Indonesia
Toward True Democracy: The opportunity and Challenges sponsored
by the Jakarta-based Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah in
cooperation with U.S. Embassy on June 17 in Jakarta. The
Indonesian version of the article was published in Koran Tempo
daily.