Paving the road of press freedom

Paving the road of press freedom

Atmakusumah has been known for his dedication to Indonesian
journalism for more than three decades, and most recently for his
latest role as the chairman of the Press Council during the past
three years. With his reappointment to the council membership
this month, Atmakusumah shared his views with The Jakarta Post
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja on how the council could improve journalism
in the country.

Question: What will be the greatest challenges for the new Press
Council?

Answer: There are several unfinished duties that the new
members should deal with, especially on the establishment of an
expert team, with respect to the new freedom of the press, to
support the council in observing media content.

We have to admit that there are a lot of newly established
media that have yet to meet our standards with their publications
and many abuse the freedom of press. The council should establish
a supervisory team to check the content of each publication.

Our restraint to establishing such a team was the lack of
funds, and the new members should find a way to raise funds not
just from the government but also from the media companies that
will benefit from the feedback to improve their performance.

Q: What will the team will focus on?

A: The team will focus on media content and the social welfare of
their workers, including journalists.

Although, it is not one of the Press Council's
responsibilities to look into the industrial relations between
journalists and media companies, we do have a moral obligation to
do so.

There are many companies that do not pay attention to their
journalists's welfare, though this is a firm's internal matters,
the council should support it because it will affect the media's
professionalism.

Q: How many complaints has the council received?

A: We have received around 300 complaints, mostly from the
public, over the last three years.

The council's new members should have commitment and provide
sufficient time in handling complaints, because once we receive
the complaints we have to take the time to hear from both sides.

Although most of the cases can be solved via written
correspondence, sometimes they require us to summon the bickering
parties to handle it.

(In his accountability report at the end of his term,
Atmakusumah stated that the council handled 296 complaints from
April 2000 to December 2002. Some 151 of the cases asked the
media to make clarification or to publish news sources'
clarification in exercising their answer rights.)

Q: Do the new members have other things to pursue?

A: Of course, we have another issue of ensuring the safety of
journalists while doing their jobs, since violence against
journalists is a frequent occurrence in this country.

The past Press Council had submitted a draft Memorandum of
Understanding with the National Police to get assurances that the
media community would be protected while they are on duty.

However, as of now we have not receive any response from the
police, maybe because they find it difficult to make a promise
like that.

For example, the police find it hard to protect journalists
covering risky events such as mass rallies, riots, bloody clashes
or other chaotic situations.

Despite the difficulties, we will continue to push for such an
assurance because journalists will be able to gather the best
information and present it to the public if they feel safe in
doing their job.

(In the accountability report, Atmakusumah stated that there
were 56 cases of violence against journalists in the past three
years.)

Q: From the legal aspects, is it possible to get such assurance?

A: Although our country's freedom of the press is something that
we should continue to fight for, there are a few things that need
changing to support and maintain that.

Currently, the Criminal Code still has around 35 articles
dealing with press violations that threaten up to seven years
imprisonment against journalists violating it.

In a democratic country, one should not be punished for
expressing his/her opinion and those laws should be scrapped.
People should have the freedom to say what they want to say.

It will be very difficult to speak the truth if we are always
haunted by the possibility of going to jail because of our work.

In the future we have to ensure that no journalists will go to
jail for their work, let all cases related to the press be civil
cases, not criminal ones.