Talking garbage

Why is it that the media always talk garbage when discussing the problems of waste management?

You reported on page 4 of The Jakarta Post on March 23 that the country produces 70 cubic meters of domestic waste each day, which you proceeded to convert to 20,000 tons. This gives waste a density of about 300 tons per cubic meter, which makes it the heaviest material on earth, being more than 25 times the density of Lead. Does anyone on your staff think of checking the accuracy of what is printed in your pages?

In addition, having reported several times on the landslide at the Leuwigajah, you printed a letter from your reader who signs himself as Ulafah Haldhat T (March 22) in which he claims that the garbage landslide in Leuwigajah buried "hundreds of houses", although you had earlier correctly quoted in your newspaper that this figure was "up to 80 houses", which is a long way short of the number claimed by your correspondent.

Even if your reader does not know what he's talking about, it does not justify your decision to print garbage. Surely the basis of maintaining freedom of the press can only be sustained if what you print is something remotely near the facts.

TOM HALL Jakarta