Media's election coverage biased, say observers

JAKARTA (JP): Journalists and media observers concluded on Tuesday the majority of the Indonesian media, both print and electronic, had been biased in its coverage of the election campaigning and the June 7 polls.

However, Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, sociologist Hotman Siahaan and senior journalist Djaffar Assegaf, who spoke in a seminar here on Tuesday, disagreed on whether it was acceptable for the media to take sides.

Held by the Institute for Study of the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), the seminar discussed the findings of two separate studies. The first study, conducted by ISAI, was on the electronic media's coverage of the elections, while the second study was carried out by the Institute for Social Change Studies (LSPS), which focused on four major Surabaya-based newspapers: Surabaya Post, Jawa Pos, Memorandum and Surya.

Ulil criticized all television stations as giving undue coverage to Golkar, the government and the military. He cited TPI as an example. The private television station, owned by Soeharto's daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, referred to the ruling Golkar Party in its reports of the attacks it suffered during campaigning as a "certain political contender".

Ulil, however, was more concerned because the state television station TVRI and radio station RRI, which are both publicly funded, were also biased in their coverage. An example was when TVRI anchor Usi Karundeng cut off an interview with an eastern Indonesia poll organizer when he spoke critically of Golkar.

Hotman revealed a number of print media reports that he believed were biased and had mixed facts with the journalists' opinions. Memorandum, for instance, wrote in one of its reports the following: "It seems that only an unfair poll can lead PDI Perjuangan to a defeat."

Both studies found the media have committed three categories of bias, namely language bias, coverage bias, and omission bias, which could be disadvantageous but could also be otherwise.

Ulil told an audience of some 50 representatives from the media and media-watch organizations of the need to monitor the media, as it is a powerful institution. "Power tends to corrupt," said Ulil, citing Lord Acton's famous quotation.

Assegaf, however, believed it was acceptable for the media to be biased. He cited obstacles for the media in remaining objective, including time constraints and other technicalities.

"The important thing is how the media coverage can educate the public so everybody can share the responsibility for democratization," he said.

Ulil challenged Assegaf's view, saying there was never any excuse for the media to be biased. "When there's a bias, the information conveyed will be distorted," he said.

A seminar on press, film and broadcasting bills which has been submitted to the House of Representatives in the Central Java capital of Semarang on Saturday discussed a number of articles that experts said could curtail press freedom.

Leo Batubara of the Association of Newspaper Publishers (SPS), said the current Criminal Code has 35 articles which could send a journalist to prison for doing his job. However, the new criminal code being prepared has 42 articles that will curtail the press freedom further, he said.(05/har)