The need to regain trust in Indonesian press despite freedom
The need to regain trust in Indonesian press despite freedom
Dewi Anggraeni, Novelist, Journalist, Canberra
People tend to believe that rapid advancement in information
technology has opened up many corners of the world hitherto
shrouded in secrecy, or just downright inaccessible. News
travels, and can be immediately accessed electronically, if the
printed form proves too sluggish. There is a sense of power which
comes with the knowledge that you can find out what is happening
on the other side of the world just by pressing several keys on
your computer.
Interestingly however, people in western countries will
generally try to access news in publications known to them, which
usually means American, British and Western European newspapers
and magazines. Consciously or unconsciously, these people know
that those publications employ editors, journalists and reporters
with high degrees of professionalism, hence their reporting is
presumably reliable.
Conversations with Australian friends and acquaintances, media
practitioners and the reading public alike, revealed the reasons
behind their lack of trust in the veracity of news in non-western
publications. In their perception, journalists and editors of
these publications, being under pressure from their repressive
governments, have to temper the tenor of their stories, rendering
the accuracy of their reporting doubtful.
Consequently, they believe that only the foreign
correspondents of western publications are able to report
accurately and with impunity, because they only answer to their
editors at home, not to the local authorities.
This kind of perception is certainly out of date where
Indonesia is concerned. The press here has been freed up to the
extent that those in the authorities are complaining that news
reporting has become irresponsible and unprofessional, bordering
on sensationalism. And the local population increasingly perceive
their press as having so much freedom it has lost focus.
So the main problem in Indonesian press is no longer external,
which is the omnipresent long arm of the government, but
internal, namely the lack of professionalism on the part of the
practitioners.
In the meantime, most people overseas who value freedom of
expression, are not even aware of the new freedom the Indonesian
press is enjoying, and still do not trust its news reporting.
This paints a bleak picture about the press in Indonesia. It is
neither trusted inside nor outside the country.
People who live in countries where media practitioners are
generally well-trained and adequately paid often forget that in
many parts of the world journalists and reporters, especially
those who are not on the staff of, or on retainer arrangements
with, established publication companies, have to eke out their
living extremely creatively.
In Indonesia a well-known terminology, wartawan amplop, or
"envelope journalists" describes reporters and journalists who,
at the end of an interview or a media conference, receive
envelopes offered by the interviewee or the organizer of the
media conference, containing an attractive amount of cash. This
serves as a reward paid in advance for putting the person or the
events in a good light.
Journalists who stand by moral principles and refuse the
"envelopes" often have to supplement their incomes by doing other
jobs. This naturally reduces their ability to upgrade their
skills. Professional development courses offered free by media
managements are few and far between, so many journalist have had
to fund their own professional self-improvement. Those who cannot
afford such luxury, have to improvise and learn as they go.
They have to learn not only the nuts and bolts of getting a
good story, how to network just enough so as not to be cheated
out of their scoop, they also have to learn how to look after
themselves physically. And then they have to wait for the payment
cheques for their published articles to arrive.
In countries where law and order are well implemented, one of
the first things a student of journalism learns is the legal
limitations when reporting, and the risks of wading in the gray
area where the border between legal and illegal is not clear-cut.
In Indonesia, while aspiring journalists have to learn the same
theoretical skills, they also have to acquire highly-tuned
intuition and be streetwise. They have to be able to tell as soon
as they are in dangerous territory, such as when the supporters
of the subject of their critical reporting do not like what they
wrote in the previous day's paper.
Journalists find it hard to be professional when they have to
juggle several jobs at the same time and be good at what they are
doing. Media managements who claim they have to continuously cut
costs, do not feel the immediate need to provide professional
development training to their own staff and stringers, let alone
to loosely connected contributors whose articles they might use
from time to time.
Amazingly, in Indonesia the ground is covered with journalists
who are not on the staff of any established publications, though
many of these are appropriately skilled. Understandably, for
media companies who can only make short-term plans, this is an
ideal situation, for they can just pick the best talents off the
street and take advantage of their skills without having to make
expensive commitments to have them on their staff.
However, being talented and streetwise alone do not a
professional journalist make. In the long term therefore, unless
media management show serious commitments to improving the
professional skills of the journalists who write for them, who
are after all the beach-heads of their news reporting, the
Indonesian press will find it hard to ascend to the class of
media trusted by those inside as well outside the country.