Media bias feared in local election
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
The scene in the Jawa Pos newsroom on Monday evening was no different from most evenings. Dozens of journalists sat in front of computers typing out stories ahead of the deadline.
Editors moved around the room, checking on stories and once in a while looking at the layout monitor.
"Frankly speaking, we are somewhat confused about will become of the paper if Mas Arif runs in the regional elections," a reporter told The Jakarta Post.
Arif Affandi, editor in chief of the Jawa Pos daily, could run as deputy mayor of Surabaya alongside mayoral candidate Bambang Dwi Hartono, who would be seeking reelection.
Like other candidates contesting the election in June this year, Bambang and Arif have been screened by their party, in this case the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), in the Surabaya municipal council.
However, Henry Subiyakto, a member of the Media Consumers Association and a communications expert at Surabaya's Airlangga University, said there was a larger issue at stake in Arif's proposed candidacy.
"Arif Affandi's position as editor in chief of the Jawa Pos would be jeopardized. How could he maintain a fair press if he was elected as deputy mayor of Surabaya?" asked Henry.
Regional elections are scheduled to take place in nearly every province this year, and experts believe these elections will test the freedom and fairness of the press, especially local media.
In East Java, 16 of 38 regions will hold elections in 2005. And like it or not, candidates will make approaches to the media to improve their images and get their names out among the public.
The issue is more complicated if there are journalists involved on the campaign team of a candidate, or if a member of the press is a candidate him or herself, like Arif Affandi. Henry is concerned the Jawa Pos, which has the largest circulation in East Java, will be biased in its news coverage during the election.
"The public will ridicule a paper that covers a candidate who is also its editor in chief," he said. One solution proposed by Henry was for Arif Affandi to take a temporary leave of absence from the paper.
However, Arif laughed when the Post asked him for confirmation of his candidacy as deputy mayor of Surabaya.
"Ha, ha, why is there such a brouhaha over my candidacy. Surabaya is a big city like Singapore. I only wish to exercise my political rights.
"Whatever the outcome, I couldn't care less. I just want Surabaya to flourish and the candidacy is a means to achieve that," he said.
Regarding his position at the Jawa Pos, Arif said he believed the paper could position itself during the election.
"But I would probably step down temporarily as editor in chief when the race starts. Thus, the paper would not be affected by my candidacy," he said.
Arif's case is certainly not the only one of politicians and the media becoming tangled together.
Other candidates in Surabaya have already begun to woo the press using all possible means. A TV reporter in East Java said one candidate had offered him the chance to become a member of an image building team at the TV station he works at.
"The offer came two weeks ago, but I haven't replied yet," he said, adding that many journalists had became informal members of one candidate's election team.
The head of the Surabaya branch of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, Sunudyantoro, expressed concern that some members of the media in Surabaya were already biased in their coverage of candidates of the upcoming elections.
"There are already covert campaigns for certain candidates in some media coverage," said Sunu.
"It is natural for candidates to approach the media and it is up to the media itself to decide whether it will remain impartial in its news coverage during the election. In the end, the public will judge which media outlets were impartial in their coverage," he said.
Sunu supports journalists who want to contest elections. "But for the sake of impartiality, the journalists, including Arif Affandi, must first take a leave of absence."