Can You Trust Your News Media?

Jakarta Globe, Ismira Lutfia, March 16, 2012

A recent research says that the country’s broadcast stations are concentrated
 in the hands of just 12 major media holding companies in Indonesia.
(JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)    

   

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The increasing concentration of Indonesian media in the hands of just a dozen holding companies poses a threat to people’s right to information that is free of political and business interests, a study has warned.

“Our research shows that the market is the winner,” Shita Laksmi, a researcher from the nonprofit group Hivos Southeast Asia, said during a recent presentation of the research findings.

“Citizens and their right to information have been reduced to just consumers and their choices,” she added.

The study, carried out jointly by Hivos and the Center for Innovation, Policy and Governance, a research-based advisory group, and funded by the Ford Foundation, showed that despite the proliferation of media outlets across a broad range of platforms, a growing oligopoly in the industry was restricting people’s access to diverse information.

The research was conducted between July and December 2011 using a mix of in-depth interviews and secondary data analyses. It aimed to shine a light on the political economy of the media industry and its ownership, changes in media business patterns that have been taking place and how those factors have affected access to media content.

The 12 media groups identified in the study were MNC Group; Kompas Gramedia Group; JawaPos; Mahaka Media Group; Elang Mahkota Teknologi; CT Corp.; Visi Media Asia; Media Group; MRA Media; Femina Group; Tempo Inti Media; and BeritaSatu Media Holdings, the parent company of the Jakarta Globe.

Three of these groups are affiliated with political parties. MNC Group, which has three free-to-air television stations, a pay-TV service and numerous online and print media outlets in its portfolio, is owned by Hary Tanoesoedibjo, a senior official with the National Democrat (NasDem) Party.

The newly established NasDem Party was founded by Surya Paloh, owner of news station Metro TV and the Media Indonesia daily newspaper, both of which fall under the Media Group.

Visi Media Asia, which has two terrestrial television stations, TV One and ANTV, is owned by Aburizal Bakrie, a business tycoon and chairman of the Golkar Party.

CT Corp. is owned by businessman Chairul Tanjung, who has close ties to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, although he has no known political affiliation. His business empire extends to the banking, hospitality and property industries, and a hypermarket chain.

The study said it was apparent that citizens were being left on the periphery of the media sector despite its rapid growth, as owners turned their media into money-making commodities.

“Relying on the industrial setting in order to ensure citizens’ right to media will take us nowhere,” the study concluded.

“Citizens’ right to engage in the media sector has to be fought for, instead of being welcomed and accommodated by the industry.”

Another point raised was that despite the nature of the media as a public good, intervention by owners was common in the production of content, in keeping with their given business or political interests.

This was more evident in news reports, throwing the impartiality of the reporting into question and compromising the quality of the journalism, the study found.

Media analyst Ignatius Haryanto, who spoke at the presentation, said such intervention had given rise to news reporting that was not pertinent to public interests because it was crafted to serve the interests of the owners or their cronies.

Shita said, “The public has to understand that the news reports they see are not always true.”

She added that improving citizens’ media literacy was one way to counter the impact of such reporting, allowing the public to better filter out homogenous, interest-laden information.

The research also found that national policies had failed to regulate the media as an industry and that existing policies were incapable of mitigating the excessively profit-driven logic of media companies, thus leading to the emergence of the oligopoly.

Ignatius said that since Indonesia’s democratization, including press liberalization, began a decade ago, the development of the country’s media had been marred by a “tug-of-war” between industry players, the government, media regulators and civil society.

“This will continue to happen in the domain of media regulation, in which there are loopholes to shape the policy-making process and to tailor the policies in accordance with each group’s interests,” he said.

He cited the ongoing Constitutional Court review of an article in the 2003 Broadcasting Law, which was sought by a coalition of media activists who have challenged a provision on cross-ownership of broadcasting stations.

Yanuar Nugroho, the lead researcher in the study, said the rejuvenation of public broadcasters would be important to counter the tendency of private TV stations to churn out content that was produced merely to boost ratings.

“It would be impossible for private broadcasters to create a healthy public sphere for citizen interaction. That can only be introduced by public broadcasters,” he said.

B. Herry Priyono, a lecturer at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, said that in addition to increasing the public’s media literacy, there also needed to be an assessment of media members’ professionalism.

“Journalism nowadays is considered merely a job instead of a commitment to deliver the people’s voice,” he said. “We need to reinvent that commitment.”