Press Council ruling questioned

Press Council ruling questioned

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In response to a complaint about unbalanced reporting, the
Press Council ruled on Monday that 11 media companies must run a
statement from a man who was identified as a suspect in an
abduction case.

Senior journalists cautiously accepted the ruling, but said
the decision did not reflect a sense of fairness for the media.

Soeryopratomo, chief editor of the country's leading
newspaper, Kompas, said the paper would provide space to publish
a statement by the party affected by the allegedly unbalance
reporting.

But he questioned the council's ruling. "Why should we run a
correction that is the same length and column size as the
earlier ... article?"

"Judging by this decision by the Press Council, I guess they
(the council members) do not understand that the press does not
belong to individuals but serves the public's interests,"
Soeryopratomo told The Jakarta Post by phone.

The Press Council ruled that 11 media companies, including
this newspaper, must run a statement from the man to balance
their coverage of the alleged abduction of businessman Setiadji
Munawar.

The ruling came after the man named as a suspect in the
stories, Triyono Arsyad, filed a complaint with the council.

The case began when journalists covering Jakarta Police
Headquarters obtained information from a source in the police
that Triyono and his wife were suspects in the April abduction of
Setiadji.

The source also said that "Setiadji was beaten around the
head, and had holes drilled through the palms of his hands. His
money was also taken".

The journalists was unable to confirm the story with Triyono,
which led to the accusation of biased reporting and prompted the
council to order the media companies to provide space for a
statement from Triyono and his in order to repair his image. The
two remain suspects and still detained by the police.

The director of SCTV's news department, Karni Ilyas, said he
would obey the Press Council's ruling, but strongly warned that
"such punishments should not be imposed in the future".

"Maybe the Press Council should read the guidelines on how the
press should deal with such cases ...," he said.

"Based on these guidelines -- which I first read about 20
years ago -- the press only has to run corrections in proportion
with any errors made in running a story. If there is only one
single statement that is considered to be at fault, we only have
to make a correction for that (particular) statement," he told
the Post.

Soeryopratomo did say the ruling should help teach his paper
that journalists must be critical of any information they
receive, even information coming out of institutions such as the
police and the prosecutor's office.

Kompas has issued a new policy that the paper will only
accommodate sources whose credibility or identity are clear,
according to Soeryopratomo

Karni said that even if the private television station would
try and repair any alleged damage done to Triyono's
administration, he would not admit that his journalists failed to
live up to the principle of covering both sides of the story.

"We tried to seek confirmation from Triyono's lawyer, but they
refused to comment," he said.