'Media self-censorship is essential'

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian media should develop a self- regulatory mechanism to control articles and news programs, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Agum Gumelar said on Tuesday.

"We are in the sensitive transitional period from a difficult era of the New Order regime to the reform era, which offers transparency, democracy and the protection of people's basic rights and dignity," Agum told a conference on Reconciliation and the Role of the Media.

"Not every country could cope with this transitional period. It is the press, as the opinion maker, which has the ability to lead the country in a certain direction."

Other conference speakers were chief editor of Media Indonesia daily Djaffar Husin Assegaf, M. Taufik of the Indonesian Association of Private Radio Broadcasters (PRSSNI), and Asiaweek senior reporter Keith Loveard.

Agum said the reform era had given Indonesia's media full freedom, outside government control.

"The obligation to control is on the press itself.

"If the press fail to develop self censorship...in which they cannot differentiate which issues should be publicized and which should not...they have the potential to commit rights abuses."

Such abuses did not only take the form of physical threats, but also slanderous articles, incorrect writing or misleading opinion, Agum said.

The press must also focus on helping to reduce the nationwide communal clashes and ethnic conflicts.

"I regretted a picture showing a man of a certain ethnicity holding a severed head during the communal clashes in Sampit, Central Kalimantan," he said.

"How could our press lose their conscience?"

Commenting on a warning issued by North Maluku Governor Muhyi Effendie to two private television stations, RCTI and TPI, Agum said the governor had spoken in his capacity as the civil emergency authority.

"I don't know exactly what has been happening there, but I guess he (the governor) is only doing his job," Agum said.

Antara reported earlier that RCTI and TPI had been warned by Muhyi over their reports, which were said to have inflamed opinion in North Maluku, although security conditions had since returned to normal.

Besides RCTI and TPI, the governor also warned local print media the Ternate Pos weekly, Mimbar Kieraha daily and Fokus weekly.

Meanwhile, Keith Loveard said the press in Britain and the United States had "a gentleman's agreement" in dealing with sensitive issues.

"We, journalists, will only refrain from reporting news if it threatens the safety of the nation.

"I guess this 'gentleman's agreement' is acceptable for local journalists here," Keith said.

Djaffar Assegaf proposed that the Press Council be given the power to issue rulings and impose sanctions against press that committed violations.

"By empowering the press council, we can take control over the press," Djaffar said.

"The council also must seriously respond to every complaint filed by the public, and the complaints must be made public." (02)