Media needs more discipline, expert says

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 06/29/2009 7:10 PM  |  Presidential Election

University of Indonesia political expert Rocky Gerung says the media needs to discipline itself to maintain the integrity of democracy in the election, by highlighting important substantive issues instead of cheap sensationalist ones.

“The media must ignore issues that are counterproductive,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“If any presidential campaign team manages to lure the media into featuring sensationalist and gossip-filled issues, then the media will lose and degrade its integrity.”

Rocky said he believed the recent sensationalist but unsubstantial issues were published by campaign teams to gain exposure.

“The media functions as the first filter of issues in democracy. If the media is filled with unsubstantial issues thrown out by campaign teams, then they have failed to function properly,” he said.

Researcher Andi Syafrani from the Charta Politika, a political think tank, recently said the institution’s observations during the presidential election campaign had shown that substantive issues, such as foreign debt management, did not attract much media attention.

Alvin Lie, a House of Representatives legislator and member of Golkar Party chairman Jusuf Kalla’s campaign team, said that despite the fact unsubstantial issues had filled the media in recent days, his team would not be side-tracked from its agenda.

“We will remain focused on lifting the issues about the nation’s independence, as in free from outside interference,” he said.

“However, the media are the ones who have the full right to determine which issues should make their headlines.” (hdt)

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