A Message for Press Freedom

The press corps commemorated the World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2023. The condition of the press has not improved yet. It is faced with challenges.

AFP/HAZEM BADER

Mourners gather during the burial of slain veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at the Mount Zion Cemetery outside Jerusalem's Old City on May 13, 2022, two days after she was killed while covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank.

The International Federation of Journalists indicated that the wave of threats to press freedom had not subsided. A total of 67 journalists were killed all over the world. Threats of violence, directly or indirectly, against media workers were ongoing.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that truth was threatened by disinformation and hate speech. The media industry was concentrated "into the hands of the few”, and a number of regulations that were passed had paralyzed journalists even more and threatened the freedom of expression.

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Referring to data from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Indonesia ranks 108^th out of the 180 countries surveyed. Press freedom in Indonesia is rated “poor”, and ranks far below Malaysia (73rd) and Timor-Leste, which ranks 10^th. Press around the world, including in Indonesia, are facing tough challenges. The press, which is the fourth pillar of democracy, is indeed in a difficult position. Various media outlets have had to close down.

Control of the press by a handful of people, entrepreneurs as well as politicians, as the UN secretary-general has pointed out, is a reality. The emergence of social media and the mushrooming of media start-ups, whose managers may have never gained journalistic competence, are crowding the media world. The situation is worsened by the post-truthera.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto (left) together with PPP general chairman Mardiono answer questions from journalists after a meeting of the general chairmen of the six political parties in the coalition supporting President Joko Widodo's government at the Jakarta Presidential Palace Complex, Tuesday (2/5/2023) evening.

As the 2024 general election approaches, the task of the Indonesian press corps is growing more demanding. The average media view electoral politics as more akin to reporting on horse racing. The rivalry between candidates is the source of primary coverage.

The media become trapped in empty rhetoric. Debates about “coalitions”, which are actually known only in parliamentary systems, now appear in almost all media reports. When the Constitution is used as a reference, trying to understand coalitions in the Constitution is, in fact, an exercise in searching for something that does not exist.

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The press needs to encourage presidential aspirants to communicate their ideas. These ideas concern eradicating corruption, reducing social disparities, relieving poverty, and developing Indonesia’s human resources that have been left behind. The press needs to be a friend of minority communities, which are growing increasingly alienated from the concerns of the elite, and offer them hope.

The press should fulfill the role of an information clearing house with discipline in professional journalism and continue their journalistic duty of revealing the facts they gather in the field. The press should remain dedicated to the interests of the ordinary people in order to entertain the poor and remind the established. A healthy press still needs the support of all parties.

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.