Press charged with disinformation

By Harry Bhaskara

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian press retains many of its less- than-satisfactory qualities three years into the so-called reform era. Pundits assessing press performance said in a recent discussion here that they found that the "culture of lies", official statements, disinformation and biased reporting remained pervasive.

Through a pliant and unprofessional media, political actors readily find partners willing to serve their often distasteful interests at the cost of the public interest.

The military, for example, was adamant to impose a military emergency status in troubled provinces like Aceh and Maluku during the early months of President Abdurrahman Wahid's government. But now they are opposed even to civil emergency.

"This about-face is reflective of the excellent disinformation campaign waged by the military," said senior journalist Aristides Katoppo, one of the three speakers in the discussion. By "excellent" Aristides meant the military's ability to create a public image that it was opposed to the declaration of a state of emergency, while in fact it was to the contrary.

"Even in the absence of a state of emergency the military was bold enough to stage a defiant stance in front of the presidential palace," Aristides said, referring to the 7,000 troops gathered near the palace earlier this month following the firing of the national police chief.

He said the current rift between Abdurrahman and his Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri was the result of a skillful disinformation campaign worked out by remnants of the New Order forces adept in "parroting" the rhetoric of the pro-reform camp.

"It is Soehartoism without a Soeharto situation," he said.

Plans are afoot, Aristides said, that as soon as Megawati becomes president she will be dethroned in the way Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan was toppled.

"These are circumstances where 'thief cries thief'. The perpetrators, who are the actual thieves, wash their hands by first calling the other camps thieves," he said, referring to the forthcoming "Benazir operation". The question is whether or not the public are able to recognize who the real "thieves" are, he said.

Aristides' description only indicates the extent of disinformation in a country devastated by multiple crises. "I am sad to learn that such type of conflict can occur during peace time," he said.

Andre Hardjana, a communications expert from the University of Indonesia, had earlier said that disinformation clashes only normally occurred during times of war.

"We have lived so long in a culture of lies that we are no longer able to distinguish between truthful news and false news," Aristides said, referring to the 30-year rule of Soeharto that abruptly came to an end in 1998.

The discussion on disinformation and biased reporting took place at Taman Ismail Marzuki on June 13 and was organized by a group called Get-together for Democracy, a polling and media studies institute.

An activist for the urban poor, Wardah Hafidz, said the press and the mass media in general were guilty of presenting views based on orders by unscrupulous parties. "Hence the saying, there is no demonstration without the mass media," she said.

On the other hand, fierce business competition among the mass media has often pushed public interests to the sidelines, she said. "The mass media has also become a tool for money laundering. Owners of illicit money have acquired new newspapers or television stations," she said.

Wardah, a sociologist, also said the system in which the media operated was deeply embedded in feudal culture.

"The voice from the palace, statements from ministers dominate the news. Very seldom are the common people heard except when they are dissenting against the government or are beaten black and blue in bloodied rallies and riots," she said.

The mass media see things mostly in the same way the government looks at things, she said.

"They regard the common people as an uneducated lot, dismissing their protest rallies as the work of political engineering.

"If an NGO gets a donation, the mass media often say that it is exploitation of the poor. But they heap the government with praise when it receives loans from foreign countries.

"When the loan is drained by corruption, the mass media report that it is committed by 'certain parties'," she said.

Wardah said that the press was still guilty of self-censorship and that it needed to set up a new agenda of reporting away from palace, to the reporting of people on the street.

"The news agenda should be set by the people, like they do in public hearings in the United States, it should cover a wide variety of issues including corruption, health, consumer protection," she said.

Hardjana emphasized that the press "must stop selling news only for the powerful." Hardjana defined disinformation as treason against information.

Information is supposed to remove uncertainties, while disinformation, he added, "prolong (uncertainties) as we can see around us today."

Aristides said that as journalists, "we are not adequately trained to deter disinformation."

Citing the recent media centennial celebration of founding president Sukarno's birthday, he said, the press could have studied newspaper reports prior to the Sept. 30 1965 coup attempt and how the reports presented the extent of the war of disinformation war with the involvement of foreign forces.

"We learned from that period that disinformation was produced by wrapping true information with an overwhelmingly amount of false information. It is a bit like honey-coated poison," he said.

He cited the issue of the Council of Generals -- said to have planned the seizure of power in the early 1960s -- that came to the fore during the extraordinary military tribunal following the 1965 putsch.

When the tribunal was over, he said, the issue was turned upside down with the government saying that the council was responsible for the promotion of the ranks of generals.

Disinformation can also be made through the Internet or through an agency such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Aristides said.

The issue of accountability that has formed the basis of the IMF's repeated refusal of granting the much needed US$400 million aid was turned into the issue of the independence of Bank Indonesia, he said.

"Why the fuss over the central bank's independence?" he said, adding that the bank's laws were prepared by German experts.

The press, Aristides said, "expanded during the New Order period and found it awkward to operate in an atmosphere of freedom." He added that the press was too important to be left to the media alone or to the government.

"The press strives to defend the interests of the public but it never consults the public. It may have conducted a polling on various issues but never on themselves," Aristides said.

The writer is a journalist with The Jakarta Post.