RI press in the midst of on identity crisis
RI press in the midst of on identity crisis
JAKARTA (JP): After years of tight government control, the Indonesian press is unsure of its identity.
The Jakarta Post asked three people to comment on the state of the press and the role of reporters.
Ashadi Siregar, novelist and lecturer at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University:
"The press is the medium of the public. It is the press' task to inform the public about empirical facts without adding their own perspectives, and without attempting to influence the public with their reports. The press still has to analyze the information beforehand, so what the public receives are social facts, but not engineered facts. As such, the press should give all parties a chance to speak through the medium," he said.
Isn't the western press also hamstrung in reporting the truth, because it has to serve the interests of the media owners? It is, Ashadi says:
"But they still do better because they can play between the interests of the public and those of the government. Here the press has no space to play, since it has to bow down either to the government or to the media owners, who are just government cronies. There are many examples of that.
"The barriers faced by the western press in doing their work are nothing compared to those faced here. The obstacles are such that the press already stumbles (in getting information) at the level of Kodim (district military command)."
Ashadi said that in Western countries reporters could work professionally and were provided with technical training at journalism schools.
"In Indonesia most of the press people come from various disciplines, without having any journalistic skills at starting the profession."
But in the current situation in Indonesia, the varied academic backgrounds of journalists enriches the press and benefits the public, Ashadi said.
Rosihan Anwar, senior journalist:
Indonesia has never had a tradition of press freedom, Rosihan said.
"We have no training in how to live in a democratic society; the (political) 'openness' of the past few years was merely cosmetic, so the banning of the three publications (Tempo, DeTik, Editor) did not surprise me. Many reporters actually believed that 'openness' was real. They should understand what they have inherited."
What can be said about today's journalists?
"Compared to our days (between two world wars) many contemporary reporters don't have a sense of mission, in spite of their larger salaries and much better education. They don't have many good senior journalists to lead them; they just do their job as an assignment. But even then they are sloppy, they don't stick to basic journalistic requirements like searching for new sources and honoring the presumption of innocence. It's crusading reporting. mix facts with opinions through the use of many adjectives."
What causes this sloppiness?
"Maybe under the pressure of competition, of wanting to show they have a big news organization, editors assign teams of six reporters or more for one piece of news. This is conducive to sloppiness. I'm not convinced that having several reporters working as a team makes for better news. I could shoot a lot of holes in those collective reports. The reporter hands in a few facts but does not do his best. Who takes responsibility for the article? The writer who sums it all up can't do that; he isn't the one who gathers the data."
According to Rosihan, this situation does not encourage individual reporting, which is very important for good publications. People come to look for reporter's byline, he says, in which that journalist offers his insight. Because individual reporting is not cultivated, feature writing lacks substance, Rosihan says:
"It is easy to train the `common garden' journalist. It is training the `thinker journalist' that is more difficult; a task which editors must undertake. This ('thinker journalist') is the reporter who has passed basic news writing, trained in features and then specializes so that he has authority to write.
"That's why I don't read all those feature pieces by academics -- because it is reporters who should write them; reporters who have the sensitivity of an artist to see what makes a story, and then to throw away what's not necessary, to make a brief, strong piece."
Rosihan thinks today's journalists suffer from another basic deficiency:
"I don't see that they have any kind of ideology; our commitment was to the freedom of Indonesia, to uplifting the little people, promoting human dignity. We used to despair at displays of wealth."
"Editors are very careful because, unlike in the old days, it costs billions to set up a newspaper now. Previously, if our publications were banned by the chief prosecutor, we would just go on and print another one."
"Editorials are as flim-flam as they are because the press must be very cautious -- but I exercise my right not to read them. They are a waste of time."
Does all this have an impact on readers?
"Hardly. Even in communist countries people need their basic information on where to queue for supplies, and nowadays people want to know where to get discounts, as well as satisfying their basic curiosity about who got killed and mugged today. That's why Pos Kota is pretty much the only newspaper with real stories nowadays, in contrast to the make-believe world of other newspapers: people don't care what Megawati said, for example."
In this country, Rosihan says, a lot of things go unreported, for the simple reason that reporters don't see them. Or, perhaps, don't want to see them.
Another reality among reporters now is the `envelope culture'.
"I tell reporters: 'It is alright so long as it doesn't affect your reporting, but I cannot tolerate blackmail'. It's this philosophy of `keeping up with the Joneses' that's destroying us."
Readers adapt to sloppy, roundabout reporting by reading between the lines, he says. Nevertheless, he often wonders where present journalists are heading.
"Are they happy? If I were in their shoes I would be extremely unhappy. I would rather be true to myself and live in poverty like most people."
Herawati Diah, one of the country's pioneer women's journalists
As a person who has been involved in the development of the local press for more than 50 years, she has mixed feelings. She feels excitement but also disappointment.
Herawati said she was proud to see the rapid development of the Indonesian press, which is growing as a strong and profitable industry. But she is very concerned about what she perceives to be a radical shift in the values of our press. The press, which used to give voice to the people's aspirations, has now become the 'source of money' for certain people, she says.
"The period of idealist press or idealist journalists will never return," she laments.
"We can't avoid change, though. Most news publications are competing to publish as many 'exclusive' news stories as possible, in order to increase their circulations. This is the real trend of the local press today."
Herawati said she put the words 'exclusive news' in quotation marks because most of these articles are really just hot and sensational stories which, unfortunately, seem to be marketable items.
In the past journalists focused their attention on news concerning the nation's efforts to gain independence and, later, on the struggle to make development programs work.
"There was hardly room for scandals in the old newspapers and magazines."
She says many journalists interpret freedom of press in the wrong way, although she concedes that today's journalists are clever and aggressive about finding as many sources as possible. But often they also violate the right of privacy, something which is very important for any person in any place, she says.
Examples of this, she says, are the cases of Ria Irawan, a famous film star who was allegedly involved in the murder of Rifardi Sukarno; and the recent story about the death of Gina, a young woman who was found dead in Los Angeles.
"It seems to me that both Ria and her family, and Gina's family, as well as Oki (the alleged murderer), have already been tried by the press," says Herawati.
"The press has revealed every aspect of the lives of those involved, who seem to have no right to defend themselves. I don't really think it's fair game."
Herawati points out that running a newspaper today is a very risky and costly business because of the rapid development of information technology.
"We cannot rely anymore on the number of subscribers or advertisements. We have to up-grade our office equipment and improve other facilities in order to survive in or to enter the competitive market. And, of course, that requires a lot of capital."
This situation has more or less invited large-scale business groups or individuals to plunge into the media business. The involvement of businessmen in the media is inevitable, she says, and will have negative as well as positive effects on the local press.
"The most important point is that, as the press, we should not forget our mission to give expression to the truth and to people's aspirations. We can be rich and clever, but we have to be wise as well." (anr/jsk/raw)