Page 54 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

Indonesia: perning in the Gyre 43
harnessing the power of information and networks. And, despite the unequal dis-
tribution, falling costs mean that communications technology is more generally
accessible and now being used to challenge established structures of authority. It
is undermining some communities as it creates new ones, particularly where it
articulates dissent.

A media explosion
On 13 September 1999, in the last days of the 17-month Habibie administration,
the Indonesian House of Representatives passed the 21-article 1999 Press Law,
annulling the 1966 and 1982 Press Laws made under long-time President Suharto
and ushering in an unprecedented period of press freedom in Indonesia. The
shackles were further dislodged when the new President, Abdurrahman Wahid –
or Gus Dur, as he is more popularly known – abolished the feared Information
Ministry, the state agency that had censored and controlled the communication
media under the Suharto regime.
The resulting media environment may be likened to that which briefly emerged
in Thailand in 1973, after the toppling of the military dictatorship of Field
Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn. As in Thailand, Indonesia experienced a media
explosion. There were new print titles, new radio stations and dozens of local
television stations, including 4 new nationwide broadcasters, which joined the
existing 7. The world’s fourth largest population, ‘fascinated by the sudden free
flow of information, read, watched and listened in droves, fuelling a media boom
when most of the economy was bust’ (The Economist 2003: 56).
According to the South East Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), by the end of
1999, there were some 299 newspapers, 886 tabloids, 491 magazines, 11 bulletins,
12 TV stations and 1,110 radio stations, as well as an unknown number of media-
related websites (Goodman 2000). And yet, despite the apparent health of the
media industry, there are concerns about interference. When Reporters Without
Borders published its 2004 annual worldwide press freedom index, Indonesia
sank to 117 out of 167 countries – slipping 7 places from the previous year, and
60 places from the first report in 2002, alongside a warning that press freedom in
Indonesia ‘remains under serious threat due to the existence of outdated laws, and
killings and physical attacks targeting journalists’ (Saraswati 2004).
Indonesia’s elites are clearly uncomfortable with what they see as an unfettered
industry. Major General Sudrajat, media advisor to then President Megawati, speak-
ing at Newsworld Asia in July 2002, expressed his concern over media freedom.
Sudrajat explained that technological change was making the media increasingly dif-
ficult to control. He maintained that its lack of maturity impacted unfavourably on the
reputation of the country, yet the media was the single institution in Indonesia that
could not, he contended, be criticised. ‘The media needs to be more professional’, he
told the conference. ‘The lack of control costs Indonesia in its bilateral relationships,
for example with Singapore. Indonesian media flows across the border are disturbing
relations. Internally, the media, both local and international, has ramifications for
stability, for example the problems in Timor’ (interview recorded by author 2002).