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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a group of senior members of the Indonesian media on Friday that he did not mind being criticized.

“For nine years, the press has been vocal in criticizing me. It is something I accept as a part of democracy,” he said in his opening speech to the meeting at the State Palace on Friday.

“I don’t want to influence anyone and you cannot be influenced as well,” he added.

The President invited top journalists to the State Palace after previously hosting similar meetings with Islamic leaders and politically-wired former generals.

Yudhoyono said the government and the media, as watchdogs, shared the same commitment to developing Indonesia.

“With the same commitment and mission, we need to have a brainstorming [...] We need to support each other and maintain the relationship,” he said.

Not all media leaders were invited to the meeting. Among those invited were Tempo magazine chief editor Wahyu Muryadi, two Jurnal Nasional executives Syamsuddin CH Haesy and Asro Kamal Rokan, Rikard Bangun and Joseph Osdar of Kompas, Don Bosco Salamun of Berita Satu, Putra Nababan and Asep Setiawan of Metro TV and Ahmad Kusaini of Antara news agency.

The meeting was apparently a follow up to a previous discussion between Yudhoyono and several chief editors during a state visit to Budapest, Hungary, last week.

Yudhoyono said Friday’s meeting was his idea as he had received “good criticism from the press” during the Budapest talk.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the meeting was “impromptu” and “informal”.

Wahyu later invited the President to attend the upcoming meeting of the Chief Editors Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali, in June.

The meeting, which will be attended by around 500 chief editors from across the country, will discuss the independence of the media.