Press stresses need for media watch institutes

Press stresses need for media watch institutes

JAKARTA (JP): Conceding that they could not go it alone with
their new-found freedom, senior press editors and media group
owners on Wednesday called for the establishment of media watch
institutes.

In a hearing with the Commission I for political and
information affairs of the House of Representatives here, they
admitted that journalists "are no unerring angels".

"We need media watch institutes as we are not always able to
watch our own backs," Parni Hadi, head of the state-run Antara
news agency, said.

"Press freedom must be controlled by the law, not by power,"
Jakob Oetama, chief editor of the leading Kompas daily and
director of the Kompas-Gramedia Group said.

Senior journalist Sholihin Hidayat of the Jawa Pos press chain
agreed, adding that internal media ombudsmen were also needed to
check on and act against journalists who violated the code of
ethics.

A legislator asked if it were possible for the press here to
become so liberal that it "would cause deaths," citing the case
of the British princess, Diana.

Parni replied that experience here showed that it was
journalists who ended up dead instead of the individuals they
reported on. He cited the still unsolved murder of journalist
Fuad Syafruddin of Yogyakarta's Bernas daily in 1996.

However, the press people agreed that a good press law was
needed to regulate the information industry.

During the five-hour long hearing, legislators posed questions
ranging over "worrisome" press reports, professionalism,
journalists' code of ethics and the establishment of several
other journalists associations other than the previously single
government-sanctioned Association of Indonesian Journalists
(PWI), to the rampant "envelope journalists".

Jakob said this problem, referring to the receipt of money and
other gifts by journalists, indirectly or directly intended by
the giving party to influence reporting, continued to be
addressed by media organizations among other means by trying to
improve journalists' welfare.

But Jakob asserted that the phenomenon could also be curbed if
news sources stopped giving out "envelopes".

Also brought up in the meeting was the belief that
sensationalist reports were causing public unrest. Legislators
cited reports of the tapping of the purported phone conversation
between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General Andi M.
Ghalib.

Parni said the courts should make a judgment to clear the
debate of what constitutes reporting in the public interest and
that which leaks state secrets.

Aisyah Amini, the Commission chairwoman who presided over the
session, said the hearing was aimed at seeking inputs on the
country's press, which has enjoyed relative freedom since the
fall of former president Soeharto last May. (aan)