Ada Pertanyaan? Hubungi Kami 
Ada Pertanyaan? Hubungi Kami Ady Thea Dian Achmad, Robert Sidauruk
The media will not always take a balanced position when presenting news to the public due to the influence of political interests is the view of political psychology expert Hamdi Muluk.
This is in stark contrast to what is mandated by Law No. 40 of 1999 on Press, which establishes that society is entitled to the truth in information conveyed by the media.
During a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday, Hamdi explained that the spirit to create the media as a tool to deliver the truth has resonated since the 1950s.
However, the implementation of this ideal has not been quite as smooth as planned. Strong intervention from groups that possess influential power over the media has been the main reason of the failure for the realization of this ideal.
During the post-independence era, the media lacked unity and participated in the support of various ideologies including those of political and military persuasions. .
During the New Order regime, after the war of political ideology was over, the media became a communication tool used by people with authority for certain political agendas.
At present, although the situation has greatly improved compared to previous times, Hamdi notes that people still cannot rely on the media to reveal the truth as the media tends to be controlled by financial interests or business owners.
“It is too utopian to expect independency from the media,” says Hamdi.
Power now lies with society. Hamdi contends the best solution to overcome this is by providing education to people on how to filter media information
Hamdi suggests that this could be done by looking at information from different perspectives and from various sources such as through social media and the internet.
Likewise, senior journalist Budiarto Shambazy confirms the current situation is one where the media is often biased in representing the interests of media owners or a certain political party.
Budiarto, however, emphasized that the independency of media should not be considered the basis for its publication value.
Nevertheless, Erafzon, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Antara News Agency, believes there is still a glimmer of hope for national media independency.
Erafzon highlighted the emergence of several online news sites which he believes are fairly independent. This group of media could balance the publication bias conveyed by big media players and is free from cooptation and the interests of political parties and business.
Erafzon also believes that over time the public will be able to distinguish between independent media and media that is merely in the interests of a political agenda.
“During the post-independence era and under the New Order Regime there was a lot of media that was used only as a mouthpiece for a political party or certain authorities. The consequence is that only a few of them can still survive now,” added Erafzon.
(hot/kc)
Ady Thea Dian Achmad, Robert Sidauruk
The media will not always take a balanced position when presenting news to the public due to the influence of political interests is the view of political psychology expert Hamdi Muluk.
This is in stark contrast to what is mandated by Law No. 40 of 1999 on Press, which establishes that society is entitled to the truth in information conveyed by the media.
During a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday, Hamdi explained that the spirit to create the media as a tool to deliver the truth has resonated since the 1950s.
However, the implementation of this ideal has not been quite as smooth as planned. Strong intervention from groups that possess influential power over the media has been the main reason of the failure for the realization of this ideal.
During the post-independence era, the media lacked unity and participated in the support of various ideologies including those of political and military persuasions. .
During the New Order regime, after the war of political ideology was over, the media became a communication tool used by people with authority for certain political agendas.
At present, although the situation has greatly improved compared to previous times, Hamdi notes that people still cannot rely on the media to reveal the truth as the media tends to be controlled by financial interests or business owners.
“It is too utopian to expect independency from the media,” says Hamdi.
Power now lies with society. Hamdi contends the best solution to overcome this is by providing education to people on how to filter media information
Hamdi suggests that this could be done by looking at information from different perspectives and from various sources such as through social media and the internet.
Likewise, senior journalist Budiarto Shambazy confirms the current situation is one where the media is often biased in representing the interests of media owners or a certain political party.
Budiarto, however, emphasized that the independency of media should not be considered the basis for its publication value.
Nevertheless, Erafzon, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Antara News Agency, believes there is still a glimmer of hope for national media independency.
Erafzon highlighted the emergence of several online news sites which he believes are fairly independent. This group of media could balance the publication bias conveyed by big media players and is free from cooptation and the interests of political parties and business.
Erafzon also believes that over time the public will be able to distinguish between independent media and media that is merely in the interests of a political agenda.
“During the post-independence era and under the New Order Regime there was a lot of media that was used only as a mouthpiece for a political party or certain authorities. The consequence is that only a few of them can still survive now,” added Erafzon.
(hot/kc)