T

he country’s leading journalist organizations have expressed doubt over the credibility of a report by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which puts Indonesia at a ranking of 146 out of 178 countries on this year’s Press Freedom Index.

In this year’s report, Indonesia drops from 117th position, which it occupied last year, to 146. The outfit attributed the sharp drop to the country’s ineffective and repressive judicial system, claiming it was influenced by politicians and pressure groups. The report also stated that “physical attacks on media personnel are rare but often violent when they do occur”.

The Press Council said it was odd that RWB ranked Indonesia below Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia, all countries in Southeast Asia known for the draconian measures used to silence the media.

In 2010, the organization ranked Indonesia above some of the other countries in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia ranked at 100th position in 2010, above Malaysia in 141st place and Singapore at position 136. The newly independent Timor Leste was in 93rd position.

“Indonesia has the freest press in the region. I think they [Reporters Without Borders] have their own perspective on press freedom and they measure it using different indicators,” said Press Council member, Bekti Nugroho, on Friday.

In its report, the RWB said some journalists had fallen victim to violence relating to their work. It recorded that Ridwan Salamun, a Sun TV cameraman, was beaten to death by villagers in Maluku in 2010. Three other journalists were killed the same year. And in March 2011, Banjir Ambarita, a reporter, was stabbed by two unidentified men on a motorcycle in Jayapura, Papua.

Bekti said the RWB may have put more emphasis on violence inflicted upon journalists.

He said that in a country undergoing a democratic transition like Indonesia, what mattered most was whether the press managed to function as social control.

“We have the freedom to criticize the government, which teaches the public to be more rational and critical,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said that in terms of press freedom, Indonesia was certainly better than Singapore, which came in at 135th on the index.

“It would be fairer if they [Reporters without Borders] treated other aspects of press freedom equally,” he said.

Another Press Council member, Agus Sudibyo, doubted the validity of the outfit’s survey methodology.

“The result could be different if they used a different parameter. They should look into how free the press is in this country,” he said.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) also challenged the validity of the survey.

AJI chairman Eko Mariyadi said that the level violence against journalists should not be the only indicator of press freedom.

“If we talk about freedom in reporting, Indonesia surely has a good reputation. One can criticize the president or the military as one likes,” he said. (rpt)