TV reporter Ira Koesno escapes political fire

JAKARTA (JP): Several days before former president Soeharto stepped down, he still tried to hold onto power by announcing he would reshuffle the cabinet -- an effort which proved futile. And just two days before he announced he would reshuffle the cabinet, TV reporter Ira Koesno asked one of this year's most controversial questions live on a local news program watched nationwide.

Former state minister of environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja answered a question in such a way that it cost the general manager of SCTV's Liputan 6 Siang news program Sumita Tobing her job and made the program's producer, Don Bosco, tender his resignation.

The question?

Do you think a reshuffle of the cabinet is the answer to overcoming the multiple crises this nation is facing?

The answer?

"It's like a bad tooth ... By just filling a hole ... the problem won't go away. It has to be yanked out," Sarwono answered in last Sunday's interview with Ira.

Don's resignation was not accepted and Sumita has been "reassigned" to reorganize "other sectors of SCTV".

Ira, however, got lucky.

She not only escaped the possibility of being "reassigned", she is still the host of the interview segment, which suffered a few days suspension following Sunday's televised discussion with Sarwono.

To the dismay of viewers, during the days the interview segment was off the air, Ira did not present the news for SCTV's Liputan 6 Siang.

"Why should I? I present the news because the challenge lies in questioning the political or economic figure during the interview segment. Sorry to say this, but garbage can be presented by anybody," the 28-years-old Ira said.

"I felt it was time for me to be out on the streets again. However good a news broadcaster (one may be), a journalist must see things with her own eyes ... I wanted to do field reporting during that time (the interview segment was off the air). I did."

When asked about her idealism as a journalist being "edited out" by censorship, she said it was much better for print.

"Editing in print allows for suggestions of the unsaid truth whereas on TV, nothing that is said can be unsaid," Ira said.

"One has to understand that freedom of the media in developing countries is still very restricted."

She said that TV interviews were a bit different from interviews for print.

"A TV journalist should be able to package the question with words that do not invite chaos and bring forth, if nothing else, a suggestion of the truth," said Ira, who has been working at SCTV for two years.

She feels that Sarwono answered the way he did and pursued the topic -- he said that he was optimistic of the people's progress in opening up but not of their leader -- because there was "no better way" to do so.

"I guess he knew that whichever way he answered, it would come down to the same thing. He felt that retaining all of the same people on the Cabinet would be disastrous for the political and economic progress of the nation."

She said that an ideal journalist should go deep into matters they wanted expressed, whether for TV or print.

"However, all journalism comes down to words being sold. Money. Money meaning many viewers, ratings, more advertisements. Idealism is linked to so many other factors. They need to be considered."

When asked about the ideal situation for media in this nation, she said: "Hands in the media should have no direct link to hands in the government." (ylt)