'Press council's performance below expectation'

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When the reform movement gave birth to press freedom, it was greeted with euphoria and the press council was then established to ensure democracy and maintain the independence of publications.

However, three years since its revamp, the press council is still unable to attain its role as the most respected media monitoring institution, said Ade Armando, a media analyst.

"The press council has clearly failed to function effectively, because as the most respected institution it is often reluctant to criticize the media on the basis of the journalism code of ethics," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Ade pointed out that the impact was significant as these days, the press often acted like thugs, spread inaccurate information, was subjective or biased in their reporting, slandered and made pornographic insinuations.

"Many media are still unaware of the importance of the press council in controlling the standards of the media industry," he said.

He described the current condition of the press council as sad, especially since the media failed to commit to making the press council the leading media monitoring body.

"Currently, the press council cannot even afford to subscribe to newspapers, while many newspapers fail to pledge their commitment by sending daily editions to the council," he said.

After the reform movement in 1998 that toppled then-president Soeharto and his New Order Regime, the new government disbanded the Ministry of Information, which had previously controlled and restricted the press.

The media industry welcomed Law No. 40/1999 on press freedom, which included the establishment of the press council as a monitoring institution to control media quality while still maintaining independence.

The law also stipulated that the press council could only be funded by press organizations, media companies and government aid or funding from any unbinding organizations.

"The law makes it looks like the press council must be funded through charity.

"Large media should have set an example promoting the importance of the council by donating funds toward ensuring the credibility of the press. They must be proactive in injecting more money into the council; then we can be sure that the rest will follow," he said.

Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, chairman of the press council, confirmed the lack of funding for the institution.

"We calculated that we need about Rp 1.5 billion (US$168,539) annually to cover our operational costs and to establish a legal department within the council," he said.

He explained that the research and development division would monitor all media and to evaluate the performance of all newspapers.

"We have received very little funding from the media, the market leaders included," he said.

He added that thus far, his institution only received about Rp 300 million annually.

"We have received about 300 complaints since 2000, more than 150 of which came from the public complaining about media malpractice. We could not process all of them," he said.

Although Atmakusumah was well aware of the council's shortcomings, he was optimistic about the future.

"The press council will have a new chairman next week. We're hoping for a new energetic leader that will provide an edge to the council," he said.

The existing press council's official term ends on April 19, when nine new members from the press and the public will be elected by members of press organizations and media companies.

Ade supported the expectation that the press council must reposition its role in the industry to maintain its existence.

"This institution can become prominent and recognized only if it is more vocally active," he said.