A free press is often seen as a hallmark of a mature democracy. The simple idea being that a free press in some way ensures that there is accountability and the culture of impunity and immunity is whittled away. However, a free press does not always guarantee the safety of those who wish to expose the excesses of some members of the community through their activism or their reporting. Indonesia has seen three journalists killed since February 2009. The latest, Ardiansyah Matra'is was pulled from a river in West Papua. Matra'is was naked and handcuffed.
Matra'is prior to his death was a reporter for Merauke TV. Matra'is death is also the culmination of a series of threats SMS-ed to journalists warning them that "if they played with fire they would be sure to get burned" and that they should be 'prepared for death'.
Matra'is' death follows the mysterious death of a Kompas journalist, Muhammad Syaifullah, in Kalimantan. The police have been quick to dismiss foul play, which suggests that the case theory as far as the police are concerned is that this was a suicide. Syaifullah had been reporting on the ongoing raping and pillaging of Indonesia's natural forests and resources by big mining companies.
These two deaths follow the death of Anak Agung Prabangsa of Radar Bali in February 2009. Prabangsa had also been the subject of threats after exposing irregularities in the building of an international standard primary school in Bangli, Bali.
It is time that the free press that is claimed to exist in Indonesia became free. The first step is to ensure that journalists can do their jobs in an environment where they are free from terror and threats of death and, in at least 3 cases in the last 18 months, death.
What is it with this grabbing the dog from behind picture. Everywhere one goes looking for a Luna Maya picture, this is one of the first ones to appear...
Luna Maya (@lunmay) has returned to the Twittering fold and reactivated her account on the microblogging site. I guess this means you cannot keep a good woman down, even if you lodge a criminal defamation complaint against her?
The Luna Maya fiasco erupted when some infotainment journalists became a little over-zealous in their pursuit of the interview and photo that we mere mortals crave in our daily celebrity fix. During the ensuing free-for-all Ariel's (the boyfriend of LM) little girl was clocked in the head with a camera or something. This led to the famous tweet comparing infotainment journalists to prostitutes and murderers. Subsequently, the Luna Maya Twitter account disappeared after a short apology was posted.
But, it is back! There have been no new tweets apparently. Apparently is because I do not tweet or twitter and I am going on what others have said. Ah, the beauty of second hand information.
What is interesting is that the Minister of Communication and Information, Tifatul Sembiring, has come out and said that the Information and Electronic Transactions Law that the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) is using as the basis of its criminal defamation claim was not drafted not designed for this sort of criminal defamation action.
According to Sembiring, the ITE Law was drafted and is designed to prevent computer related crimes such as credit card fraud and hacking., That said, it would seem that Article 27 also seems to open the door for arguments that the ITE Law also conceives that criminal defamation might also be a crime within the scope of the law.
As usual, a Luna Maya post lends itself to some gratuitous picture posting.
-- Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) Principles of the Civil Code (1843)
This undoubtedly applies to every nation and every individual in the world. However, I post it here as I have been thinking about the pending criminal trial of Prita Mulyasari and the recent Twitter spat of Luna Maya and the use of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE Law) in Indonesia.
I am particularly interested in the different ways that journalists view this law as a restriction on free speech. The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) in Indonesia has campaigned against the law whereas the Indonesian Association of Journalists (PWI) has decided to use the provisions of the law to file a criminal defamation complaint.
These are indeed interesting times in which we live.
The following was originally posted on the English language version of hukumonline, here.
The journalist profession is one that is determined by deadlines. However, a deadline must never be construed as an arbitrary number of working hours. The reality is that journalist might put in many more hours than the minimum to get their story to print on time. It is these time sacrifices that the Alliance of Independent Journalists (Aliansi Jurnalis Independen / AJI) seeks to recognize in its annual report on the fair wage for journalists in Jakarta.
AJI is of the view that there are many media companies who do not adequately recognize the contributions of their journalists. In an effort to assist those companies in recognizing a fair universal wage for all journalists AJI has done the research on the company’s behalf and established a fair minimum wage.
So, for the past two years AJI has provided a guideline minimum fair wage for Jakarta-based journalists. The announcement of the 2009 minimum fair wage was made amongst considerable fanfare at the AJI Secretariat in Jakarta on Tuesday (26/05). The number, IDR 4.5 million per month, is not surprising considering that the previous year the minimum fair wage according to AJI was IDR 4.1 million per month. The 2009 figure reflects inflationary pressures. In comparison, the minimum monthly wage for Jakarta’s workers, as set by the Regional Government, stands at around IDR 1 million.
The minimum fair wage applies for all journalists that have been employed for at least 12 months and who have been appointed as permanent employees of the company where they work. The wage is based on the cost of living in Jakarta, but this is not the sole consideration. The minimum wage is based on six core components, namely: cost of food, accommodation, clothing, transportation, telecommunications (such as mobile phones) and other relevant tools of the trade (voice recorders and laptops), and insurance. These figures were gained through an AJI conducted survey.
There is little doubt that in a time of high technology that any equipment that gives a journalist an edge in meeting their deadline or beating a rival journalist to the deadline makes good business sense. However, it remains a little unclear why this is a compulsory component of a fair wage and not something that is at the discretion of employers who might not have the budget flexibility for such expenses. AJI’s response to this is that a reasonable laptop is only IDR 5 million and this is not a substantial expense for a media company.
Similarly, AJI states that the company must not only facilitate the telecommunication equipment needs of their journalists, but must also pay for the use of the equipment. A minimum requirement according to AJI is to provide a monthly allowance for calls and internet connections. This presupposes that the company has already provided the journalists with a mobile phone and a laptop computer.
In addition, to the announcement of the minimum fair wage, there was also considerable discussion of how the minimum fair wage was to be adopted. Simply, the minimum fair wage is to be used as a starting point or benchmark for negotiations between employers and journalists. Unfortunately, there was little discussion regarding what action journalists should take where employers are unwilling to come to the wage party.
Nevertheless, the basic idea is that there is strength in numbers. AJI is actively encouraging journalists to form new unions or join existing unions as a means of developing greater power in the negotiation process. This is a simple, and generally effective, take on the “united we stand, divided we fall” philosophy of unionism.
The other reason for the minimum wage level being set at IDR 4.5 million is that this is considered to be a sufficient amount that will deter journalists from accepting cash incentives to write favourable news. It goes without saying that standard practice in Indonesia currently is for those holding a press conference or other press event to provide a financial or other incentive for journalists to attend.
According to Wahyudyatmika, the Chairperson of AJI’s Jakarta Chapter, a fair wage is critical in ensuring that journalists won’t be tempted into manipulating information or write news that is biased in favour of a particular interest.
An issue that has not been openly discussed is that there are likely many media companies that will claim that they are just not financially capable of paying the AJI determined minimum wage. And, if forced to pay the AJI determined minimum wage then there may be no choice but to lay off other staff in order to balance the books.
In order to counter this issue, AJI is calling on media companies to become more transparent and share company financial information with unions so that any negotiations that journalists or their union representatives enter into can be best described as informed.
Furthermore, AJI is also lobbying the Department of Labor and Transmigration to issue a sectoral wage for journalists that sets the minimum fair wage for journalists. If the government is convinced on this front then the minimum fair wage for journalists in Jakarta would be set in legislation. This would then mean that employers would be required to justify to the relevant government authorities why they are unable to pay the minimum fair wage.
It is unlikely that AJI is going to adopt a name and shame campaign against those media companies not paying the minimum fair wage. However, AJI is encouraging media companies that are not paying their employees the minimum fair wage to consider other opportunities for their journalist staff in lieu of salary such as further education.
The debate about what constitutes a minimum fair wage for journalists is far from resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned. However, open and frank discussion can only be to the benefit of all.
