Officers should be wary of press reports: Wiranto

Officers should be wary of press reports: Wiranto

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces
Commander Gen. Wiranto has warned against the abuse of press
freedom and told his officers to avoid being influenced
indiscriminately by what is reported in the media.

Addressing almost 500 middle-ranking officers at the School of
Command for Police Officers in Lembang, West Java, Wiranto said
that the press had an enormous influence over forming public
opinion.

"But, this should not apply to officers," he added, as quoted
by Antara on Monday.

Wiranto's statement was the second veiled warning the
authorities have delivered to the press in recent weeks.

Last week, when presenting the draft 1999/2000 state budget to
a House of Representatives plenary session, President B. J.
Habibie said that the abuse of press freedom had reached an
alarming level.

He said that greater freedom won for the press by the reform
movement had resulted in a proliferation of exaggerated and
imbalanced news reports which were confusing and had the
potential to cause public unrest.

Three hundred new publications have registered at the Ministry
of Information since Minister Mohammad Yunus eased licensing
requirements in June last year.

Wiranto said that all servicemen, especially those in the
middle and higher ranks, should have the insight to understand
developments in society for themselves.

Separately in a dialog on the press and political parties, the
head of the Association of Newspaper Publishers (SPS) Leo
Batubara predicted that the government would clamp down on the
press in the years shortly after 2000.

Leo said there were signs that the government would issue
regulations to restrict the press and bring them into greater
compliance with the government in the near future.

He drew analogy between the present situation and a period of
greater press freedom between 1945 and 1957, when the country had
newly won its independence; and from 1967 to 1974, in the early
days of the New Order regime.

"There will be a period when the press comes under greater
pressure again," Leo said.

In 1974, 14 publications were banned following what has come
to be known as the Malari incident, then in 1994, critical
reporting suffered a further blow when Tempo, DeTik and Editor
weeklies were all closed down by the government.

In the dialog organized by Antara, representatives of several
political parties said that largely uncritical reporting of the
previous government led it into complacency and contributed to
the current crisis.

"The Indonesian press was not courageous enough to criticize
Soeharto and his cronies," said Wimanjaya Liotohe, chairman of
the Indonesian Prima Party (PPI).

Wimanjaya is the author of Primadosa, a book which discusses
the wrongdoings of the past government and has only recently been
removed from the list of banned publications.

Party executives also urged the press to pay more attention to
minority parties set up in the aftermath of Soeharto's
resignation last May.

A few said they even had difficulties in placing
advertisements of their parties in the media; while the popular
faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party under
Megawati Soekarnoputri had its advertisement published in
newspapers.

Jawa Pos chief editor Dahlan Iskan suggested that one way of
ensuring press independence would be to ban journalists from
holding executive positions with political parties. (rms/29)