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Journalists still face uphill battle post-New Order
Limitations to press freedoms have continued to persist 22 years after the collapse of Soeharto’s New Order regime, senior journalists with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) have said.
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Press freedom illustration (Shutterstock/File)
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imitations to press freedoms have continued to persist 22 years after the collapse of Soeharto’s New Order regime, senior journalists with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) have said.
Senior journalist Dadang RHS said that journalists today were often intimidated or harshly criticized, not only by the government and its related bodies but also by dissatisfied parties such as mass organizations, which often demand media outlets and journalists to dance their way.
These challenges remain despite the presence of complaint procedures over a journalist’s work. Law No. 40/1999 on press freedom states that complaints over stories should be presented before the Press Council first to seek clarification or an out-of-court settlement.
During the New Order regime, journalists had to tiptoe around serious issues, often blanketing critical information in plain, normative wording to avoid the government’s watchful eye.
“The challenge remains the same, if not more [challenging] than in the past,” said Dadang, a former journalist with Tabloid Detik, which was banned in 1994 by the Soeharto administration.
Tabloid Detik, along with Tempo and Editor magazines, were banned by the government following their reports on the purchase of 39 warships from East Germany, which saw an alleged markup from the actual price of $US12.7 million to $1.1 billion.
Following the ban, a group of journalists from multiple outlets then founded the AJI in direct opposition to the government’s authoritarian practices. The AJI was formed at Wisma Sirnagalih in Bogor, which is owned by Tempo.
