JP/3/ENDY

JP/3/ENDY

A wise pen can still be mightier than the sword, even in RI

Endy M. Bayuni
Deputy Chief Editor
The Jakarta Post
Cambridge, Massachusetts

The media in Indonesia has come under fire once again. Unlike
the Soeharto years, when the attacks came directly from the
government, this time it is coming from the wealthy and the
powerful in league with the courts -- their battleground of
choice. Sadly, the media rarely wins these "legal" tussles. And
amazingly, journalists and editors are now responding in the same
fashion as they always did during the Soeharto era whenever they
came under attack: Duck for cover, play it safe.

Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, the former chairman of the Press
Council, said he already had the sense that this series of court
defeats was intimidating journalists and undermining the freedom
of the media, according to a report by The Jakarta Post last
week. "They force journalists into self-censorship. The media no
longer dares to speak out for public interests," he was quoted as
saying during a seminar on the state of press freedom in
Indonesia.

Self-censorship is something that all professional editors do
each day. Keeping in mind space constraints, editors take out
what is not relevant and/or deemed indecent. We publish or
broadcast what we feel is in the interest of the public. There is
nothing wrong with self-censorship in and of itself. But
Atmakusumah was clearly referring to the insidious habit that
most of us indulged in during the Soeharto years: Taking out what
is relevant to public interests, just to stay on the good side of
the powerful and wealthy.

The threat of an expensive, financially crippling lawsuit is
enough to force most of the media in Indonesia into submission.
Understandably, most are operating on shoestring budgets. Only a
few media groups in Indonesia have the kind of money that our
predators demand in terms of compensation in the courts.

For most of the media, losing a major lawsuit has a similar
impact as Soeharto's threat to rescind our press licenses a
decade ago: Closure. It should come as no surprise then that many
editors and journalists have simply resorted to reporting
inconsequential news as a result of fear and self-censorship.

The nature of the attacks against the press are also different
today: In the court room. As far as the Indonesian justice system
is concerned, the wealthy and the powerful are winning their
court battles. Of course, they are helped along the way by their
highly paid, but often sleazy lawyers, and I suspect, they are in
collusion with judges.

They have even hijacked "the rule of law", one of the battle
cries that we in the media helped popularize at the start of the
reform era six years ago, and turned it into a weapon to fight
against us. Now, they too are using the buzzwords of the reform
movement.

The media is never going to win this fight if it keeps whining
about how the law of the land is not protecting them. The 1999
Press Law, with all its imperfections, still provides us with far
greater protection than we ever had before. And the amended
Constitution provides clearer guarantees for us in going about
our business.

Is the sword actually mightier than the pen in Indonesia, even
in this era of democracy where freedom of the press is supposedly
guaranteed?

There are a few things that we could do to turn things around
in our favor. To win this battle, we need to move the focus of
the war away from the courtrooms, where we seem to be
consistently losing.

The media needs to improve the skill and professionalism of
journalists. This is an absolute requirement. Some, though not
all, of the lawsuits brought before the court were caused by
sloppy journalism. The message is clear: A mistake can be costly.
And sloppy journalism is a disservice to the profession. Keep
this up, and pretty soon we lose our credibility and the trust of
the people, and before long, our freedom.

Many print and broadcasting media, as well as professional
organizations, have conducted training seminars and workshops in
recent years to improve the professionalism of their newsrooms. A
quick glance at their coverage today, however, suggests that we
still have some way to go. Investigative journalism, increasingly
an important function of the profession in today's complex world,
is one area where more training is needed because this is where
the media is most vulnerable to libel lawsuits.

The media community must also fight for the passage of the
freedom of information act, currently held up in the House of
Representatives. This would be more important than amending the
1999 Press Law. Such a law would assist journalists in getting
closer to the truth in their reporting, particularly when
conducting investigative reporting.

Finally, the media must treat this battle as part of a wider
campaign to preserve democracy. Freedom of the press/media is
really a subset of the freedom of expression and opinion. These
recent attacks against the media should be seen as part of a
larger conspiracy by the rich and powerful to deny the people
their right to freely express their views or opinions. As long as
the media treats this as simply a threat to its own freedom, then
we will be fighting this battle alone with little support of the
public.

The media must stop treating itself as part of the elite, the
way it has been in recent years. It must see itself and function
as part of the public. It must act in the interest of the public,
as a conduit to defend the weak, powerless and the marginalized.

When an editor and a reporter of Tempo magazine were attacked
by a gang of thugs last year, the media immediately responded by
launching a campaign to wage a war against thuggery. The campaign
never really got off the ground, the public response was
lukewarm, and Tempo journalists lost their cases in court.

What went wrong? For most people in Indonesia, thuggery has
been around for centuries. They have felt the brunt of the
violent and arbitrary behavior of such thugs for a long time.
Such a campaign would have been more effective, and certainly
would have won wider public support, if it was launched in
response to thuggery in general, and not simply narrowed down to
the attacks on two Tempo journalists.

It is probably unrealistic to expect the media in Indonesia to
unite in fighting their predators. Some of the big media
institutions, particularly the TV stations, are owned by members
of that wealthy, powerful clique. But the really concerned media,
those who profess to serve the public interest, must unite with
the people it claims to represent, and fight the battles
together.

We owe our existence, and hence our freedom today, to them.
Let us not underestimate our own power and capability if we act
in unison.

The pen is still mightier than the sword. But only if we are
use it wisely.

The writer is currently studying at Harvard University under a
Nieman Foundation fellowship, with funding from the Ford
Foundation and the Asia Foundation.