Press freedom or fiefdom

Press freedom or fiefdom

President B.J. Habibie's claim that the press have abused
their freedom cannot, and must not, go unchallenged. The fact
that he used his budget speech, broadcast live nationwide on
Tuesday, to make such a scathing attack on the press shows that
his intention is to turn public opinion against the press.
Government criticism of the press during the Soeharto regime
usually heralded a clampdown by the authorities. It remains to be
seen whether this will also be the case under Habibie. It was
Habibie who, in the early weeks of his presidency last year,
proposed that practicing journalists be licensed, an idea that
was quickly shot down by many of those in the profession.

Admittedly, some members of the press have abused the freedom
they have had since the demise of Soeharto's authoritarian regime
in May. But Habibie made it sound as though this abuse is so
prevalent, not only among the sensationalist tabloids -- an ugly
but unavoidable side of press freedom -- but also in the
mainstream press. In arguing that society must address these
abuses by the press, he essentially, and conveniently, lumped the
sensationalist tabloids together with the mainstream newspapers,
many of which have been very critical of his leadership.

The public fortunately are much more discerning than the
President would have it, as shown by an opinion poll published by
The Jakarta Post on Dec. 13. The poll found that the majority of
people still believed that a free press, in spite of its
excesses, brings more good than harm to society. More than 60
percent of the 1,050 people polled in three cities felt that,
overall, the press have not abused their newfound freedom. Only
30 percent believed that the press have abused their freedom.

The poll results contradict Habibie's claim that the press
have been engaging in exaggerated and imbalanced reports, and in
the process sown confusion and caused unrest. We have no qualms
about his wish to see the press providing rational, fair and
accurate information, for these are essential ingredients for a
credible press. We have no objection either to the press being
assigned the role of helping to preserve national unity. But the
government can no longer dictate the meaning of "responsible
press", which in Soeharto's era was arbitrarily defined to suit
his interests, and used to muzzle the press.

Responsible press in the old days often meant suppressing
information in the name of stability and unity. From time to
time, the press were forced to turn a blind eye on tragedies and
injustices that occurred. The burning of churches was one of many
news items typically concealed in the name of preserving
religious harmony.

In retrospect, the press's failure to raise the public
awareness of these tragedies meant that law enforcement agencies
were not under strong enough public pressure to catch the
perpetrators. In the name of "unity", the quest for justice was
virtually abandoned. As a result, these atrocities continued, and
people lost confidence in the government's ability to uphold
justice. This lack of confidence reared its ugly head in riots
which sometimes had ethnic and religious overtones.

The attacks on churches in the Ketapang district in Jakarta,
and the attacks on mosques in Kupang in East Nusatenggara, both
in November, were prompted more by the people's lack of
confidence in the legal system than by press reports. If the
people had confidence in the justice system, they would not be
compelled to riot, no matter how appalling the news may be.

It would be too easy to shoot the messenger, as Habibie is
obviously proposing, when the going gets rough. But a crackdown
on the press is not going to make up for the many injustices that
have occurred, and still occur, in this country.

While Habibie recognizes, at least in his speech, the
importance of freedom of the press in a democracy, he fell short
of what even his information minister Muhammad Yunus has often
underscored: that a critical press is vital in a democracy in
providing an effective check on the government. A famous 1792
ruling by British Lord Chancellor Thomas Erskine could easily be
applied to today's Indonesia: "The press must be free; it has
always been so, and much evil has been corrected by it. If the
government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own
conduct and it will find the cause."