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.