Fri, 19 May 2000

Observers warn against increase in 'bad journalism'

JAKARTA (JP): Observers and veteran journalists warned here on Tuesday against an increase in "bad journalism", and called on the media to regulate itself in upholding professionalism and its code of ethics.

Speaking at a seminar on the media, Southeast Asia Press Alliance deputy chairman Lukas Suwarso said unprofessional journalism was a result of an "excess" of the country's newfound freedom and openness.

"The fledgling democracy in the country has brought about a number of mediocre and partial media, and they don't care about the code of ethics," Lukas, who was formerly the chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, said.

He said these media were merely published to serve and to voice the interests of certain political groups, and sometimes used to undermine their political foes.

He said it was therefore the duty of well-established media "to direct and widen (the views of) its readers" in order to keep the public from reading bad journalism.

But the chief editor of Tempo weekly magazine, Bambang Harymurti, who also spoke at Tuesday's seminar, said earlier that bad journalism would not survive the competition because the public would eventually tire of sensationalism.

"You can lie one time, but you can't lie all the time," Bambang said when discussing a number of the newly founded "yellow" newspapers and tabloids.

He said, however, that "free press tyranny is better than military or civilian tyranny", as the former could not "kill or send people away to jail".

President Abdurrahman Wahid has repeatedly pledged his full commitment to a free press, but rebuked some media earlier this month for abusing the country's new freedom.

The President said "freedom should go hand in hand with the ability to use it wisely".

He said that "in the past months, we, Indonesia, have developed a trend of investigating everything and spending our energy on so many activities unnecessarily, while forgetting the essential things (that need) to be monitored".

Abdurrahman also said developing professionalism and ethics was the responsibility of the press itself.

But the President also failed to condemn, and seemed to tacitly accept, a recent incident of intimidation involving Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) civilian guards at the Jawa Pos office in Surabaya, East Java, after the daily published false allegations of corruption and nepotism involving NU officials. (byg)