Media criticized for stoking hatred over Ambalat

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Activists here criticized the media for contributing to the tension between Indonesia and Malaysia over the disputed Ambalat offshore oil block in the Sulawesi Sea.

The Indonesian media failed to promote peace in its coverage of a dispute that prompted the two neighboring counties to deploy warships to the disputed maritime area, the activists said.

This assessment was given during a discussion hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Free Flow of Information (ISAI) on Wednesday.

They said the reporting on the "Ganyang (Crush) Malaysia" campaign in several cities and towns was "provocative".

"Based on my observations, the national media focused on the possibility of war rather than advocating a peaceful settlement," said Erianto, an ISAI researcher.

"For example, the local media preferred to give coverage to the deployment of soldiers in Ambalat or the recruitment of volunteers to attack Malaysia," he said.

Erianto noted that the Malaysian media did not cover the Ambalat issue as heavily as the media in Indonesian.

"In Malaysia, the issue first appeared in the media about March 7, highlighting a telephone conversation between Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who discussed a settlement to the conflict," he said, citing news reports published by Malaysian newspapers such as Berita Harian, The Star, The New Strait Times and Utusan Malaysia.

The on-line version of Utusan Malaysia, utusan.com.my, however, published a report on Ambalat on Feb. 28, emphasizing Malaysia's claim over the area.

Of 16 articles published by the Malaysian media, none encouraged people to attack Indonesians or to take the Ambalat area by military force, Irianto said.

The Bernama news agency in Malaysia ran two featurized articles, titled What Ambalat? Balinese Ask and A Week of Positive Indications for Indonesia-Malaysia Relations, which conveyed the message that relations between people in the two countries were not disturbed by the issue.

One of the stories mentioned that a Malaysian travel agency had seen an increase in bookings by Malaysian groups holidaying in Bali in March.

Fathi Aris Omar, a columnist for Malaysiakini.com, said the word "Ambalat" was not even familiar in Malaysia, as the disputed area was more often referred to as "Block XYZ".

"There's nothing shocking about it. That's because Malaysia also has territorial disputes with Singapore and Thailand," he said. "But it became a vital issue when Indonesians started burning Malaysian flags."

The activists emphasized the need for the Indonesian media to promote "peace journalism", which means that news outlets should consider the implications of their coverage.

"Merely serving up the facts is not enough. You should also consider putting positive values into your reports because just a few days of war could bring years of suffering," Fathi said.

Peace journalism has been promoted by, among others, Johan Galtung, a Norwegian who founded the Peace Research Institute in 1959. He urged journalists to consider non-violent values in choosing what stories to report and how to report them, by embracing balance, fairness and accuracy in their coverage. (006)