The media's role

In her letter on the death of Princess Diana (The Jakarta Post, Sept.25), Jenny L. Khoeng wrote about the powerful impact of the media on people -- a fact that comes as no surprise to me.

Editors have always had the right to publish news that they wanted people to hear. Even our dearest Jakarta Post letter editor did the same thing.

In responding to Mr. Natarajan's first letter, I wrote a letter questioning his objectivity under the title Should We Judge?. This paper changed it into Really a people's princess on Sept. 8.

From Mr. Natarajan's second letter, dated Sept. 9, I knew that my real intention expressed in it was overshadowed by admiration of the princess. So was the new heading given by the editor? I faxed a second letter to clarify my viewpoint.

Apparently the letter never crossed the editor's table. I thought the issue was dying out but Ms. Khoeng's letter made me realize that the editor had chosen to make a black and white opinion.

I think Joan Smith put the answer to people's admiration and closeness to Princess Diana very clear in her feature Diana: The impact she made on millions of women (Jakarta Post, Sept.7). Along with other features, the newspaper had actually presented many different views, both subjective and objective.

I only hope that the editor would not change the meaning in one's opinion to suit the paper's own perspective.

Asian women are brought up differently from western women. Most Asian women are educated in a traditional way to accept their destiny and to keep their role behind that of their husband. That is why nowadays Indonesia lacks women leaders, especially in political organizations.

However, many do make successful leaders in the social, cultural and business world. They have the full support of their husbands and families.

The feeling of being loved strengthens women to face their problems.

In regard to Princess Masako, her problems were entirely different from Diana's. The Japanese protective press is also instrumental in helping her to adjust to her new role in life.

We are not qualified to judge as our knowledge is limited to what is presented by the media, which might not be the truth.

At least we should be able to enhance our objectivity by selecting news fed to us by the media.

MARIA MARGARETTA

Jakarta