Journalists asked to use conscience in reporting

JAKARTA (JP): A respected Moslem scholar has called on journalists to use their conscience in their work.

"Journalists should consult their conscience so that they know how far they can go in writing a story," Nurcholish Madjid of Paramadina Foundation said in a discussion here over the weekend.

Indonesia was a country with the most diversified culture in the world and had an immense size, he said, which was undergoing three cultural waves -- agrarian, industrial and information -- simultaneously.

On top of that, the country had anthropological pockets which had yet to enter the first wave culture, he said.

"Society is undergoing a critical social crisis reflected in various symptoms like psychological dislocation, social disorientation and deprivation of the people," he said.

Therefore, he said, it was pertinent for journalists to ask themselves about motivation every time they wrote a story.

Nurcholish was speaking at a discussion titled "Media and the Islamic Community" jointly organized by Paramadina Foundation, the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information and The Jakarta Post.

Despite the topic, most speakers in the discussion referred to the recent amicable settlement of a dispute between an Islamic group and Kompas daily.

The Team of Defenders of Islam (TPI) reached an amicable out- of-court settlement with the daily on Oct. 3 and dropped its plan to bring the daily to court for its recent reports on Algerian political upheaval it perceived as disrupting the Islamic community.

Kompas had acknowledged that it made a mistake in its reports regarding articles concerning the 1974 Indonesian Marriage Law and the political turmoil in Turkey and Algeria. It had also published an apology in several papers.

TPI was set up following a protest last month by the Indonesian Committee for World Moslems Solidarity (KISDI) claiming that the daily's editorials on violence in Algeria had slandered Islam. It was supported by 120 signatories including leading Islamic figures Amien Rais, Deliar Noer and Kuntowijoyo.

Nurcholish also said that the press was a transparent institution.

"Whatever it does, including in its philosophy and psychological topography of people who are in it, is all there to see. There is nothing to cover up," he said.

He said that the social crisis due to a rapid change in Indonesia had been accompanied by a more assertive behavior of its people.

"The new rich are suffering from a nouveau rich syndrome, the intelligentsia from an intellectual syndrome and those in power from a power syndrome.

"Hence, car drivers who have been deprived of dignity in everyday life vent their frustrations in the streets causing traffic jams, those who possess firearms are trigger-happy and journalists who pose a threatening stance through writing give birth to a journalism-extortion syndrome," he said.

Along this line, another speaker, Haidar Bagir of Moslem- oriented Republika daily, emphasized the need for journalists to become empathetic toward readers in doing their work.

"I don't believe in freedom of the press. I believe in the interdependency of the press," Haidar said.

Other speakers in the discussion included Moslem leader A.M. Fatwa and scholar Komaruddin Hidayat.

Fatwa said the amicable out-of-court settlement in the Kompas case was the best alternative.

"Should have the group decided to go to court, a third party could have exploited the case and any unwanted thing could have happened," said Fatwa in response to a participant who called the settlement, which put the case in the public spotlight, and the public apology less than "elegant".

"What is wrong with a settlement in which Kompas admitted that it had erred," Fatwa, a signatory backing TPI, said.

Offending

Fatwa earlier said that Indonesian Moslems had long been offended by Kompas' reportage on Islam. He arrived at the conclusion thanks to two of his journalist colleagues, he said, who had diligently scrutinized reports by the daily on Islam during all these years.

Fatwa cited reports on recent interreligious marriage cases and the 1974 incident in which student demonstrators seized the seat of the House of Representatives' chairman in their bid to pass the marriage bill supported by the Moslems.

Another time, the daily failed to publish an article responding to a critical view of the marriage law by Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Catholic priest, he said.

Magnis who was one of the participants at the discussion said: "Thank you Fatwa for publicly bringing up the topic we often discussed in private."

Magnis commended TPI for agreeing to settle the case.

"We should know that these are sensitive issues. And TPI does not want the case to get out of control," he said. However, he said, consensus also had its shortcomings.

"One can ask," he said, "why someone with a different view cannot be accommodated in a newspaper.

"Or is it that something that is unpleasant to read cannot be mentioned? Isn't it our wish to have a press which is critical?" (hbk)