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)