Media not ready for elections

JAKARTA: With just six months left, the media in the country are still not ready for covering the 2004 elections, a survey showed.

The survey, conducted by the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), involved 600 journalists in six major cities across the country.

Survey head ISAI researcher Eriyanto said not all reporters, even those on the political beat, understood the details of next year's election process.

According to the survey, 66 percent of respondents had only read part of the Election Law, 22.8 percent had never read it, and only 10.1 percent had completely perused the law.

Meanwhile, 72 percent had partial knowledge of the legislative election system, and 68.7 percent had partial knowledge of the presidential election system.

Only 20.3 percent had complete knowledge of the legislative election system, and 23.2 percent, the presidential election system.

The survey recommended workshops to help journalists understand the electoral system. -- JP