Shooting the messengers
While journalists are fully aware of the risks of covering a conflict or a war, the attack on a group of journalists in the East Timor capital of Dili on Thursday was way out of line. One TV clip showed a thug attacking a TV cameraman who was protecting a female reporter. Not shown on TV but graphically described by Kompas daily was the shooting of its reporter, who would have died had he not worn a bulletproof vest. Shot in the leg, he was forced to flee by limping away from his assailants. He had to be hospitalized.
Journalists have found themselves caught in the clashes between proindependence and pro-Indonesia camps on several occasions in recent months. Most of the incidents went unreported, or were given passing mention. The journalists, and the media they represent, rightly treat such incidents -- as long as they are not life-threatening -- as hazards that are part and parcel of their profession. As messengers, their real job is to focus their reports on what is happening in East Timor, and not draw public attention to themselves.
But it is altogether a different story if the attacks are intentional or premeditated, which is what occurred on Dili's streets on Thursday. The assailants were bent on harming the journalists and, in the case of the Kompas reporter, of taking his life. The journalists were the targets. They were not caught in the line of fire, which, incidentally, remains the Indonesian government's official line for the untimely deaths of five Australian-based journalists in East Timor in 1975.
When people start assailing journalists, it is an attack not only on the particular individuals, but the entire profession, and what it represents: the quest for truth. Any attack, intimidation or harassment against journalists undermines their ability to report the truth, which in turn obstructs the public's right to information.
With the historic ballot in East Timor set for Monday, it is clear that some people are becoming uneasy about the increasing attention devoted to the territory by the international media. They do not like to see the truth in East Timor, concealed for much of the last 24 years under Indonesian rule, suddenly bared for the whole world to see. These are the same people who, in their desperation to smother the truth, roundly accuse the media of bias. Granted, some media slanted their reports in favor of the underdogs in the conflict, but their ability to do so is inevitably limited by the understanding of a discerning and critical audience.
The job of journalists is to portray the truth to the utmost of their ability. This is limited by the extent of the access they are given to obtain that information. The more access they have, the closer they get to the truth. Both sides in the conflict should therefore have an equal stake in giving journalists as much access as possible, so that they can get as close to the truth as possible.
The attack and intimidation on Thursday may have served the assailants' purpose to conceal the truth for a short time. But in the long run, the truth will out, as the saying goes, and such practices will be proven counterproductive. One only need look at the way the international media treats the Indonesian government today. For much of the past two decades, the government barred access for journalists to East Timor and, at times, lied to the world about the conditions there. Its credibility is now continually called into question, even when its intentions are genuine. Several thousand kilometers to the west, the military managed to suppress information about the atrocities it committed for nine long years in Aceh. Once the ugly truth emerged last year, the Acehnese lost all trust in the military and police.
Journalists covering the East Timor conflict know full well the risks that their job entails. Most come prepared, with bulletproof vests, or even insurance. They, or their media, are not asking for special protection from the government or the police. But they need some kind of recognition, from all parties involved in East Timor, of their work and of their duty to the public at large in providing as accurate a picture as possible of the conflict. All they ask is that they be allowed to do their job, without being intimidated, attacked and wounded.