Press freedom 'still under threat'

Badri Jawara, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Atmakusumah Astraatmadja has been a part of Indonesia's press history from Sukarno's era to the present administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Atma began writing for the media while he was in junior high school in Medan, North Sumatra.

"I learned to write because I wanted to become an author," he said.

While at senior secondary school in Jakarta, he wrote for Lukisan Dunia (World Pictorial) and Siasat magazines. He made crossword puzzles for agenda books published by the Dutch and then began to write for the Indonesia Raya daily.

He recalled a day when he picked up his pay from Lukisan Dunia's office and the employee in charge told him to go to the children's section because Atmakusumah, who was dressed in shorts, looked like a child.

"In fact, I wrote for the politics column," he said, adding that he forgot how much he earned at the time. He only remembered that he could treat six friends of his to chicken satay once a month.

In 1958, he joined the Jakarta School of Journalism, now IISIP, and worked for Indonesia Raya out of great admiration for Lubis, the daily's chief editor.

"I admire Lubis because he always fought for freedom of the press and was against corruption," he said.

One time, he said, he wrote a profile of Muhtar Lubis as the winner of the Raymond Magsaysay Award and the next day a group of Military Police officers came to Indonesia Raya's offices to warn everybody not to write anything about Lubis.

Atma was greatly moved when he was also awarded the Raymond Magsaysay Award on Aug. 31, 2000. Many years ago, he wrote about Lubis receiving the same award in the same category.

The fifth of six siblings, Atmakusumah was born in Labuan, Banten on October 20, 1938. His parents were Ratu Kartina and Mas Junus Astratmadja. Atma married Sri Rumiati and had three children with her. His wife is a retired librarian and helps him edit various books.

In October 1958, Indonesia Raya was banned and Lubis imprisoned. Lubis had been detained several times before for his criticism of Sukarno's administration.

In 1959, Atmakusumah joined PIA (Persbiro Indonesia), formerly Aneta, a news agency that the Dutch had left behind. PIA was then under Adinegoro. While working at PIA in 1961, Atmakusumah joined the Indonesian section of Radio Australia despite his mother's objections.

In 1964, he left Australia and toured Europe. He got stuck in Cologne, a city to the north of Bonn. In Germany, Atmakusumah applied to the Indonesian section of Radio Germany. For a three- minute broadcast, he earned DM 6, which was enough to buy three meals a day. He said that during those times, he was afraid of catching the flu, because if he was absent from work, he would earn a lower wage.

When he saved enough money, he began to yearn for his homeland again.

"I could eat two eggs abroad but in Indonesia one omelet was shared by five people," said Atmakusumah, his mind flying back to the times when Indonesia was first starting out.

In 1965 he left Germany for Indonesia. When he returned he found Indonesia in an economic and political mess.

"In this country, I can do many things," he said.

Back in Indonesia, he helped Duta Masyarakat, a newspaper belonging to Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organization. Here again, he was reprimanded by the military because of his criticism of the government. At the same time he wished he could join Antara, arguing that when he was abroad, he had helped both PIA and Antara.

In 1968, Lubis resumed the publication of Indonesia Raya. Former employees and journalists of this newspaper were reunited. In October of the same year, he left Antara and joined Indonesia Raya. In 1972, he was named executive director, but because of antigovernment rioting, known as the Malari incident on Jan. 24, 1974, Indonesia Raya and 10 other mass media were banned.

Lubis and several others in the media were brought to court while Atmakusumah and 14 other journalists were blacklisted.

Again, he found himself unemployed. One day in 1974, he telephoned the press attache of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. As the attache was in need of an assistant, Atma was recruited.

Atma worked for the U.S. Embassy for 18 years. In 1988, the Press Council set up the Dr. Sutomo Press Institute (LPDS) and he was asked to join.

In 1992, Atmakusumah quit his job at the U.S. Embassy and became more active at LPDS, then under Djafar Assegaf. In 1999, Djafar was named Indonesia's ambassador to Hanoi and Jakob Oetama succeeded him. Jacob was too busy, so Atmakusumah became the director of LPDS.

Although he is very busy, Atmakusumah still finds the time to write a book and edit 28 others. His book, titled Press Freedom and Information Flow in Indonesia and published by the Development Study Institute (LSP) in 1981, is made up of his writings published in the media or papers from various discussion forums.

Over the next two years, Atma and his friends at the Press Council received 150 public complaints about the media. Generally, these complaints could be settled through the exercise of the right to respond.

If a case is reported first to the police, it would never be handled by the Press Council because the council would not interfere with police affairs, he said.

He always reminds those in the media business of the need to shun selfishness and not to defend oneself excessively.

"The press must never seek self-justification," he said, adding that he believed there were more press-related cases than those reported.

Reports collected by the Press Council, he said, show that Indonesian reporters miss checking and rechecking the facts so that their articles usually lack balance and accuracy. This tendency is generally found in the print media, although there are also examples in electronic media.

"Unless the press immediately improves itself, the public will have a higher demand in view of the growing dynamism."

He said that there are nine laws with articles that could threaten freedom of the press. Apart from the bill on broadcasting, the Law on consumers, the Law on limited liability companies, the Law on bankruptcy, the Law on state emergency, the Law on advertising and the Law on state secrets could affect freedom of the press.

"The way I see it, there are too many laws that hamper the press. These laws should have been repealed in a democratic world," he said.