MPR scuttles press freedom

MPR scuttles press freedom

By Atmakusumah

This is the second of two articles on the aborted attempt by
Indonesian journalists to ensure press freedom in the country.

JAKARTA (JP): The 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) concluded its Special Session without taking the
opportunity to contemplate the meaning of the tireless efforts of
the press community and the public at large to shed the chains
that have shackled press freedom for the past 254 years.

Nevertheless, some proposals from the Indonesian Press Society
(MPI) did go into the MPR decree on human rights.

The proposals come under Section VI: The Right of Freedom to
Information. Article 20: Every person has a right to communicate
and obtain information to develop one's individual self and
social environment. Article 21: Every person has the right to
seek, obtain, own, store, process and disseminate information by
all available channels.

Also under Section X: Protection and Advancement, which
contains Article 42: The right of citizens to communicate and to
obtain information is guaranteed and protected.

Now is the right time for Indonesia to shed the shackles that
bind press freedom, especially when neighboring countries and the
international community recognize that press freedom in Indonesia
has blossomed since Soeharto stepped down as president on May 21.

This recognition apparently has motivated a number of press
organizations from North America and Thailand -- which has gained
press freedom -- to invite the participation of independent press
organizations from Indonesia and the Philippines in the Southeast
Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

SEAPA was set up at a Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 meeting in Bangkok.
Its secretariat is scheduled to be inaugurated in the city on May
3, 1999 coinciding with World Press Freedom Day. The aim of SEAPA
is to promote and protect press freedom in Southeast Asia and to
monitor threats to journalists and press freedom in the nine
countries of ASEAN and Cambodia. The effort to maintain the press
freedom now enjoyed by Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia
hopefully could encourage press freedom in other Southeast Asian
countries as well.

The objective of SEAPA is similar to the program of the
Committee to Protect Indonesian Journalists the MPI set up in
Jakarta on Nov. 4. The committee intends to help in overcoming
constraints news people face in their journalistic work in the
field as part of their public service.

The problems in press freedom and the flow of information have
drawn greater attention from mass media practitioners of
Southeast Asia today. In an Oct. 29 to Oct. 31 meeting at Subic
Freeport, the Philippines, journalists from nine Southeast Asian
countries, including Indonesia, focused on the obstacles to a
free press. These include state control, media ownership
concentration, repressive legislation, licensing and physical
threats.

The participants of that meeting urged journalists to "expose
infringements on press freedom and develop mechanisms to protect
journalists". They also stated: "We see the need, in particular,
to expose the complete lack of press and other freedoms in
Myanmar."

The Subic conferees underscored that "at a time of crisis and
rapid change in Southeast Asia, a free press plays an
increasingly crucial role to inform citizens".

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, at the SEAPA founding
conference in Bangkok, stressed that such issues as greater
transparency, openness, human rights and press freedom would
dominate the agenda of Southeast Asian societies well into the
next century. He is convinced that a free press is the best
guarantee for sustaining reform and forcing accountability in the
public and private sectors.

Newspapers are owned by individuals and corporations, but
freedom of the press belongs to the people, Surin said. "It is
therefore the duty of each member of society not only to
safeguard the freedom of the press, but also to ensure the safety
of its practitioners."

In Surin's view, "freedom is indivisible. It is all or none."

The writer is a former managing editor of Indonesia Raya, a
crusading daily the Soeharto government banned in 1974. He is now
executive director of the Jakarta-based Dr. Soetomo Press
Institute. The above article is translated by Warief Djajanto;
the Indonesian version appears in D&R (Detektif dan Romantika)
weekly magazine on Tuesday.