AJI: ?Don?t Restraint Freedom of the Press?

Alliance of Independent Journalists (Aliansi Jurnalis Independen ? AJI) stressed on the importance of freedom of the press in presenting information.

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Ezki Suyanto

Alliance of Independent Journalists (Aliansi Jurnalis Independen ? AJI) stressed on the importance of freedom of the press in presenting information. This was conveyed in a discussion of Lee C. Bollinger?s book titled “Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open – A Free Press For A New Century” on March 12, 2010 at Grand Ballroom A, Aryaduta Hotel, Jakarta.

Ezki Suyanto, Board of AJI, one of the speakers in the book discussion, said that freedom of the press should not be restrained at all. This statement came from the idea that Indonesia is a democracy nation, in which the government?s forth pillar is held by the press. If the press? performance is constrained by any rules, or even restricted, how can the press maximize its work to produce transparancy of news?

There are several laws in this country that could threaten freedom of the press. For example in the Press Bill itself, in article 4 paragraph 5. Initially it states, “The press is not subject to censorship, bans (bredel), or the broadcasting prohibition.” However, it sounded like a lipservice only, as in the next paragraph, the government still requires bredel (license revocation), censorship, and broadcasting ban.

This rule will be applied to, “Press that produces news or pictures or advertisements that is degrading a certain religion, and / or disturbs the harmony among religious communities and / or is in contrary with public taste and decency, and / or jeopardizes the implementation of defense system and national security”.

In other words, censorships and license revocations can still be applied for extremelly broad reasons, as well as multiple interpretations. What is meant by “degrading a religion”, “disturbing harmony among religious communities”, “being in contrary with the sense of public decency”, or “endangering the implementation of the defense system and national security” can be used explicitly as a reason to impose censorships, license revocations, and broadcasting prohibitions. Who has the rights to claim over these violations?

These unclear definitions could threaten the freedom of the press. Another example mentioned by Ezki was the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (Undang-Undang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik ? UU ITE) and Pornography Act. According to Ezki , as AJI representative, this kind of thing happened because, “The government did not involve the Press Council when drafting the Act. The Press Council as journalistic experts should have taken parts in drafting the Act.”

Therefore, the clarity of meaning from each sentence written in the Act is necessary, and the most important thing is the implementation of the Act to the Indonesian press. To what extent can Indonesian press use its freedom? When there is good clarity of all this, then Indonesian press will not be constrained in spreading information. (cyn)

UPH Media Relations