Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi (center), operations assistant to the National Police chief Insp. Gen. (Pol) Deden Juhara (center, right), and president director of Jasa Raharja Budi Rahardjo (center, left) give a statement after a coordination meeting in anticipation of the 2018 Lebaran return exodus at the headquarters of the traffic police in Jakarta, Thursday (14/6/2018). The ministry prepared a number of measures to anticipate the heavy traffic over the holiday, including by providing more rest stops along toll roads and prohibiting large trucks from using major highways.
The national press as part of the mass media that spreads information and forms opinions must be able to carry out its duties as best as possible.
The basis of this “as best as possible” requirement makes up an independent and professional press. Therefore, mass media workers, especially journalists, must have legal guarantees and protection, as well as be freed from interference and coercion from any party.
In the “Considerations” part of Law No. 40/1999 on the press, press freedom is seen as a major concern. Freedom serves as the basis for press industry workers in carrying out their jobs, especially for journalists in seeking and delivering information to the general public. Journalists must not carry out their roles and duties haphazardly. In working professionally, journalists will enjoy legal protection from the state and be freed from interference and coercion from any party.
However, in practice, it has never been easy to implement press freedom in Indonesia, much like in several other countries in the world. Threats to journalists, be it physical or legal, keep on happening. The latest case is a police report filed against Serat.id journalist ZA by Semarang State University (Unnes) rector Fathur Rokhman at the Central Java Police. Previously, ZA, through the media, reported allegations of plagiarism by Fathur (Kompas, 19/11/2018), The dispute between ZA and Fathur has been widely reported in mass media.
ZA’s case is far from being the only case of news reportage that has led to police reports being filed against journalists. A number of other reportages have also ended up with criminal charges being lobbed against the journalists who made them, generally for defamation. This is despite the Press Law clearly stipulating that any dispute related to news reportage should be resolved through a press mechanism, including in the provision of a right of reply and mediation with the Press Council. Not everything should lead to a police report, especially when the National Police and the Press Council have signed memorandum of understanding No. B/15/11/2017 and No. 2/DP/MoU/2017 on coordination in protecting press freedom and law enforcement of journalists’ professional abuse.
In line with these agreements, all matters of reportage-related disputes and journalistic professional abuse must be resolved through mediation with the Press Council. As a profession, like any other, journalists are bound by a code of ethics, competence requirement and other legal regulations. The nature of protection for journalists is reciprocal. This means that even with press freedom, journalists must also uphold the freedom of others.
The Introduction section of the Journalistic Code of Ethics, launched by the Press Council with national press organizations in 2006, reaffirms that, in implementing press freedom, Indonesian journalists must also be aware of national interests, social responsibilities, social diversity and religious norms. Any reportage-related disputes serve as tests for the press’ professionalism. Press organizations, especially the Press Council, should have given the chance to decide whether or not any violation of professionalism has occurred.
