Press faces growing threats to its freedom

Ati Nurbaiti, Chairperson, Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Jakarta

Over the past few months, the media community have become increasingly alarmed at the growing tendency, on the part of the government, to regain control of the media. Experienced journalists inside and outside the country note that this is to be expected in the aftermath of a honeymoon period between the government and the media, after an authoritarian regime has been toppled -- all the more reason to watch out for the forms that these efforts of media control will take.

The latest advice from President Megawati Soekarnoputri is that the media should try to be "executors" once in a while, instead of continuously raising baseless criticism. This would only serve to further risk impartiality while the media must face up to constant questioning on whose side it is on. "The statement reflects that the government is reluctant to be criticized," said one observer.

People become angry when they are only criticized without being offered solutions. One wonders what media the President or her advisors subscribe to, given the endless talk shows and columns featuring a wide range of experts from which one could select independent views and informed proposals.

The first indication of increasing media control was the establishment of an information ministry in Megawati's Cabinet (although suggestions that the honeymoon was over started earlier, under the government of Abdurrahman Wahid who always blamed the media for alleged misquotes).

Following expressions of disgust from those who thought that the dark days of having a Big Brother, a government body to control the flow of information, were over, State Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul Mu'arif said within weeks of his installation that he was to be in charge of telematika (telecommunications, media and information).

Since this statement we have not received a clear explanation as to what in fact this covers and what has been done about it. A telecommunications expert interpreted the office of the state minister's job as being in charge of the technical regulation of telecommunications and the facilitation of wider access to the media. Meanwhile, Syamsul said he would focus on facilitating more equal access to information, particularly to the rural population and that he would work on bridging different perceptions within the upper and lower levels of government.

Then it became clear that State Minister Syamsul was not sure of his job description. Citing feedback from legislators who said that the media had gone too far, he raised suggestions to revise the 1999 law on the media to include articles from the Criminal Code to curb irresponsible coverage.

The media law is not perfect but it is the first legal instrument to guarantee freedom of speech. While a new constitution should include the statement "freedom of speech is guaranteed", the existing 1945 Constitution only mentions that such freedom "will be regulated by laws".

The point of the whole exercise in drawing up the law, mainly by the media community, was to shout "Never again!" to efforts to tighten controls of the media.

As this newspaper has pointed out, while there is such a thing as a bad media and a good media, "in a controlled media regime, you are only going to get a bad media, a media that indulges in lies, or half-truths because it is prevented from telling the whole truth".

That legislators do not grasp this only shows how remote they are from efforts made by civil society toward reform.

A number of groups within the Coalition for the Law on Freedom of Information are also anxiously monitoring whether deliberations on this draft law will have a lower priority among legislators compared to the draft law on state secrecy and the draft law on antiterrorism -- both of which might run counter to the struggle for the freedom of information.

The President has criticized the media quite a few times but the new rule against "door-stop interviews" for the President and Vice President Hamzah Haz have not helped. If the leaders concerned would allocate time and sit down for a few minutes with the media each time it is necessary for them to air their stance, door-stop interviews, with dozens of microphones competing for space around their faces, would not happen. But the leadership of the country must remain easily accessible to the public by answering to the media, who might prefer quoting them than their conflicting ministers.

What subtle efforts to gain public support for media control choose to ignore is that there are now many efforts within the media and wider society to control the media themselves.

We have never had media watchdogs and now there are so many. The public has only to discern which bodies live up to their claims of representing the widespread concern that the media is not using its newfound freedom in a responsible manner.

The struggle to have a law on freedom of information is of course not only in the interest of journalists -- the coalition of groups diligently working on the issue includes those working on a better environment, those fighting against corruption and advocators for consumer interests.

What must be pushed forward is not a reaction against a bad media -- it is instead the strive for greater transparency and accessibility to information for the public who would be empowered to make more informed decisions and measures that affect their lives.

To recognize otherwise is to repeat the assertion that father (or mother) knows best and scrutinizes or covers up sensitive information for his brawling children. This is what was done in the past when ethnic, religious or racial differences were not to be discussed -- landing the media in confusion when it suddenly had to report bloodshed.

While the public is learning to deal with the power of media freedom, a more informed public would learn to contest or ignore irresponsible reporting, thus snuffing them out of the market.

And as the government has adopted the jargon of public empowerment, it must also reinforce it in its mentality and put an end to its habit of insulting public intelligence.