Media's election coverage biased, say observers

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)