Jakarta, June 28 (Antara) - Amid biased press reports about next
month's presidential elections, the media is being asked to help create a
conducive climate to prevent the outbreak of conflicts among supporters
of the two presidential candidates.
"We hope that all electronic and print media will help build democracy
through holding general elections without violence. Differences of
choices should not lead to the outbreak of violence among the people,"
House of Representatives' (DPR's) Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said.
The House deputy speaker made the appeal during a dialog among press
organizations, media editors, University of Indonesia's (UI's)
academicians and House leaders to discuss efforts of creating a
conducive climate for a fair and peaceful election.
Although the media in the country seems to be divided and biased with
regard to reports and news about the two presidential candidates who
oppose each other in the upcoming July 9, 2014 presidential race, yet
its role in guiding the democratic development in the country is badly
needed.
According to Chusnul Mar'iyah, the president director of the Center for
Election and Political Party (CEPP) of the University of Indonesia, the
press, which is the fourth estate of democracy, is the guardian of the
democratic process.
"As a fourth pillar that has a control function, the media has an
important role in directing the development of democracy in Indonesia,"
she noted here on Thursday.
Therefore, the House of Representatives has sought the media's help in
anticipating problems and assisting in supervising the upcoming
presidential election.
Pramono Anung expressed his hope that the democratic process for
electing the president and vice president will be peaceful, fair and
successful.
He also spoke of the possibility of a conflict among supporters of
different presidential candidates when they come face-to-face.
Conflict can be easily fueled if there is fraud during the elections.
The DPR leader emphasized that all sides need to make efforts to prevent
and minimize possible fraud and violations.
"The public has been eagerly waiting for elections where there are only
two presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs. This is stiff
competition. The press is expected to help calm the rising political
temperature," Pramono remarked.
He also said the press must be able to assuage the rising temperature without affecting the essence of competition.
In this regard, Chusnul Mar'iyah said the press was responsible for the process of building democracy.
"One of the things achieved in Wednesday's dialogue was to highlight
the media's high responsibility to build understanding among the press
and state institutions such as the DPR but, at the same time, in the
context of the general elections they are responsible for the process of
building democracy," Chusnul reiterated.
She added that the purpose of the dialog was to build DPR's trust in the media.
Chusnul, who is also a former member of the General Elections
Commission (KPU), reiterated that although the press had the
responsibility to control, it did not mean that it had the same task as
that of the DPR, because they have their respective areas of control.
"But,
media reporting also needs to be controlled for the sake of developing
democracy and a better Indonesia in the future," she emphasized.
Chusnul's statement on the need to control media reporting is in line
with media conditions in the current presidential election campaigns.
The media, particularly those owned by leaders of political parties
supporting presidential candidates, is divided in its reports on the
presidential elections.
Sabam Leo Batubara, a lecturer at the Dr Soetomo Press Institute, said
the polarization of the media in reporting on the presidential elections
is becoming sharper, adding that this polarization in supporting their
respective candidates has the potential to create conflict.
This is as a result of the absence of mutual understanding among the
media practitioners and the lack of serious government support for
peaceful presidential campaigns. He said that the media, which released
negative reports, even on sensitive issues, should also provide
verifications and clarifications. "The press should cover both sides,"
he asserted.
Chairman of the Legal Commission of the Press Council Stanly Adi
Prasetyo pointed out on Wednesday, "In the run-up to the elections, the
media fully takes sides with its owners, particularly those who are
members of political parties.¿
The biased reports of the media
could be seen from the ads and campaign duration the media has
presented. "The TV media is divided into two camps which support the
Prabowo-Hatta pair, on one hand, and the Jokowi-JK duo, on the
other. Metro TV and TV One are two privately run TV stations are
contradictory in their reports (on presidential elections)," he said.
With the divide, the two TV stations have biased reports. The contents
of their reports are contradictory to each other and have implicit
prejudices.
Regarding imbalanced reports of the media, Agus Sudibyo, the executive
director of Matriks Indonesia, suggested that the Press Council and the
Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) should launch what he called a
media 'liberation' movement to provide education to the public.
He added that the movement is needed because a number of privately-run
television stations provided unbalanced reports on the presidential
elections.
"This movement, and the movement to provide counseling to the public,
are needed because I see that the two camps continue to launch negative
campaigns," said Agus Sudibyo on Wednesday.
He added that the unbalanced reports were residues of the democratic
process, to which the public should be careful in giving a
response. "The public must have devices to filter mainstream and social
media information," he said.
Currently, there are two presidential and vice presidential candidates
who will contest in next month's elections, namely Prabowo Subianto -
Hatta Rajasa and Joko Widodo - Jusuf Kalla (Jokowi-JK).
The Jokowi-JK pair is supported by five political parties: PDIP, the
Nation Awakening Party (PKB), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura),
the Justice and Indonesian Unity Party (PKPI), and the National
Democrats Party (Nasdem) established by Surya Paloh, the owner of Metro
TV and the Media Indonesia newspaper.
The Prabowo-Hatta pair is supported by Gerindra, PAN, the Prosperous
Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), the Crescent
and Star Party (PBB), and the Golkar Party, whose current chairman is
Aburizal Bakrie, the owner of TV One.***3***
(T.A014/INE/f001)
(T.A014/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 28-06-2014 11:29: |
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