The Press Council extended its gratitude Thursday to journalists and law experts trying to strengthen its legal power, but rejected the gesture.

The council said it would prefer remaining an ethics watchdog rather than handing down legal sanctions.

“We appreciate the effort. However, we do not see a revision to the existing procedures as the answer to our current problems,” council deputy chairman Leo Batubara told a discussion. “We think that the Press Council should not stray from the field of ethics.”

Christiana Chelsia Chan is from the Twenty Eight Foundation, a forum for media law experts that drafted a procedural law to boost the council’s authority under the current Press Law. She said the council should play a greater role settling media-related disputes, such as those pertaining to libel.

Currently, the country’s media is monitored by the Press Code of Ethics as well as the Criminal Code. However, people dissatisfied with media reports tend to bypass the code of ethics as it offers less punitive values.

“We have drafted a revision of the rules on complaint filing procedures, which we hope will simplify the process for filing complaints to the Council about  allegations of irresponsible reporting,” said Chelsia, the foundation executive director.

“According to an interpretation of Article 15 of the Press Law, the council is authorized to uphold the law, as well as press ethics,” Chelsia said.

Legal and professional ethics expert Tommy H. Purwaka said the council should throw more

legal weight behind journalism ethics, or have the court legalize those standards. 

“This will strengthen the position of ethics. The council should also have more power in settling legal media matters,” Tommy said at the same event.

Leo disagreed, saying the problem lay not in the complaint filing procedures but in the second amendment of the 1945 Constitution. Article 28 of this amendment outlines the legal right of the individual to voice their opinion.

“Section F of this article mentions the individuals freedom to voice their opinion. However, Section H of the same article potentially limits that freedom. This could be exploited by those with vested interests, such as those engaging in corruption,” he said.

Leo said the Council did not require legal powers to strengthen its authority, as long as it could enforce journalistic ethics effectively.

“More power tends to lead to corruption, and that also applies for the council,” he said.

Nevertheless, Leo said many media companies tended to enforce those ethics very loosely and needed to take them more seriously overall.

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