Media told to be cautious about ads

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Press Council has called on the media not to succumb to demands from business entities by publishing advertorials that may or may not be factual and often could be misleading to the public.

Press Council Chairman Ichlasul Amal said the media had to draw the line between genuine journalistic work and presumed facts presented by certain companies trying to promote themselves.

"The media groups have to call a spade a spade. If the facts published by the media are aimed at advertorials and it was paid for by a company for its publication, the newspaper must say so in order not to mislead its readers," Ichlasul told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Ichlasul was commenting on the recent media campaign, in newspapers and on television, initiated by PT Newmont Minahasa Raya in a bid to improve its image, which was tarnished by allegations that the U.S.-based mining company polluted Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.

In successive ads run in several national newspapers -- mostly without using the word "advertorial", Newmont published statements from local leaders saying that the mining company had not contaminated Buyat bay.

The media campaign culminated in the publication of an open letter to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, demanding the release of five executives from the company -- three Indonesians, an American and an Australian -- who have been in jail without charges since Sept. 22.

Police released on Saturday the suspects and put them under city arrest.

Ichlasul said the media could be accused of breaching the Journalism Code of Ethics if it ran an advertorial without notifying its readers.

"It is the same as receiving payment for publishing a story about someone who wants to get publicity," he said.

However, Ichlasul said the Council could not regulate which ads the media could publish as that was the authority of individual editors.

"The Press Law concerns the journalists and their work and it does not regulate the publication of ads, as it has to do with the financial arrangements of the media itself," he said.

He said that given the media's powerful role to influence the public, it should be more selective in deciding which advertorial to run.

Separately, deputy chief editor of Sinar Harapan Kristanto Hartadi said the news department could not decide whether or not ads could appear on the newspaper as it was determined separately by the paper's business department.

"However, we will not publish an ad if it is considered provocative, libelous or could incite unrest," he told the Post, while adding that the Newmont advertorials did not violate any of those principles.

Sinar Harapan evening daily and The Jakarta Post are among national newspapers that have published Newmont ads in the past week.

Kristanto said his newspaper decided to run the ads as the pollution allegation leveled at Newmont was still being handled by the police and had not reached the court.