Indonesian press squeezed between two interests: Hill
Indonesian press squeezed between two interests: Hill
JAKARTA (JP): A strong combination of political connections
and business interests defines the Indonesian press as it is
today, a media analyst says.
"Today's print and electronic media are 'squeezed' between the
government on one side and the interests of shareholders on the
other," said David T. Hill, a professor of Southeast Asian
Studies at Murdoch University, Perth.
Speaking at a discussion here on Saturday with journalists and
media observers, the author of The Press in 'New Order' Indonesia
(1994) questioned the increasing role of shareholders in the
media industry and the likelihood of them gaining more control
over the media's news reports.
Hill, whose article The Press in a Squeeze: Operating Hazards
in the Indonesian Print Media was recently published in the
Southeast Asian Journal of Social Sciences, cited the Gatra and
Tiras weeklies as consequences of the dilemma which the
Indonesian press have to face.
Both magazines were established after the government revoked
the publishing licenses, or SIUPP, of Tempo, DeTik and Editor, in
June 1994 for "editorial" and "administrative" reasons.
Gatra, which now employs a number of former Tempo journalists,
acquired its SIUPP less than three months ago after timber tycoon
Muhammad "Bob" Hasan injected substantial funds into the weekly.
Tiras, which replaced Editor, started business again last
month after Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief, through his
company ALatief Corporation, bought shares in the new weekly.
"I think it is very difficult now to distinguish between the
investors and the power-holders because many investors have
become rich by having political connections," Hill said in
flawless Bahasa Indonesia.
He pointed out that any person closely tied to the government
who, at the same time, also does business in the media industry,
"must be questioned".
"The SIUPP has encouraged a conspiracy between investors and
politicians in the establishment of a media industry," he said.
Hill completed his Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies at the
Australian National University and wrote his thesis on Indonesian
literature. He spent 1980-1982 in Indonesia doing his doctoral
dissertation on senior journalist and writer Mochtar Lubis.
Risky
Kastorius Sinaga, a business consultant and columnist, pointed
out that the oligarchical media industry, together with strict
government regulations, makes it very risky for people to run in
the business "unless they have strong political access".
The expectation of the Indonesian public to see their
aspirations expressed in the media have given way to the voice
and aspirations of government and big business, he said.
Benny Harman from the Media Indonesia daily said that human
interest stories, for instance, once reflected a journalist's
true ideals. Now such coverage is often commercially motivated,
resulting in an unreal picture of what is really going on in the
country.
"Most media reach only a very small, elite group of middle-
class people...Outside this group is the rest of the middle-class
who have a minimal interest in the goings-on of the country,"
Kastorius said.
Mudji Sutrisno from the Driyarkara School of Philosophy
attributed this indifference to the fact that most middle-class
people "are too busy tending to their own personal needs and have
no time to deal with political issues". Those who work for
government institutions, however, "are dependent on the
government and therefore reluctant to say anything against it".
This, for example, was evidenced last year in the minimal
reaction of the middle class to the media ban, he said.
"This class is in something of a transitional stage and
because they are so involved in surviving, it forgets everything
else. As such the media has not yet become an absolute
necessity," Mudji said.
Despite the pressure, he said, "there is still a small number
of journalists who try to look for 'gaps' which allow them to
develop their creativity and stick to their ideals". (pwn)