Press freedom 'still under threat'

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.