The art of reporting

It seems that reporting is not as easy as it looks, even when you report facts, let alone opinions or comments. The same facts can be reported in different ways, presented to the public in several forms, and can cause confusion among readers.

Let me give an example of how a fact, introduced by the same person, can be presented in different ways by different reporters.

One day Attorney General Singgih met with the President to report on issues related to corruption. As usual, when the attorney general emerged from the President's office, he was surrounded by reporters who asked what the meeting was all about. Singgih explained that he reported to the President about corruption in Indonesia. This is a fact.

Let us now see how this same matter, said by the same person on the same day and at the same place, appeared in the newspapers.

Angkatan Bersenjata: In the last two years corruption cases have declined. (what good news, we all should be happy about this), because the modus operandi of the corruptors has become more sophisticated. This is a little bit difficult to understand because corruption should increase when the modus operandi is sophisticated.

Kompas: Singgih said that tackled corruption cases shows it is tending to decline. In my mind this is different from what Angkatan Bersenjata reported. According to Kompas corruption is still rampant, only the tackled cases are declining. Is that so?

The Jakarta Post: Attorney General Singgih confirmed (yesterday) the decline in the number of reported corruption cases over the past few years.

So we have three newspapers, reporting the same person on the same day, on the same subject, and yet the outcomes are different. One paper reported the decline of corruption cases, the other paper said that tackled cases had declined and the third wrote that reported cases had declined.

Give me an aspirin please.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta