In May 1998 President Soeharto of Indonesia stepped down thus offering his country an opportunity to begin the processes of institutional renewal and transformation. UNESCO, in order to contribute to this process, particularly in the area of media legislation reform, fielded a fact-finding mission in July 1998 by Mr. Cushrow Irani, a member of the World press Committee and UNESCO’s consultant on press freedom in Asia.

In a report submitted to UNESCO, Mr. Irani recommended to the Indonesian Government to review press laws and the various ministerial decrees that impinged upon press freedom. He further advised the Government that UNESCO was in a better position to assist Indonesia with the task of developing a new press law given the Organisation’s expertise and experience in undertaking similar assignments world-wide.

As a follow-up to Mr. Irani’s recommendation, in November 1998 UNESCO fielded a two-month expert mission to Indonesia to provide assistance in reviewing the various media regulations and ministerial decrees. The mission held extensive meetings with Ministry of Information officials, stakeholders including journalists, editors and NGO’s working in the media in order obtain information, refine recommendations and assist with the elaboration of a press law.

The current Indonesian constitution, it should be pointed out, guarantees freedom of expression. However relevant sections of the current Press Law are worded ambiguously and are constrained by various ministerial regulations and decrees that adversely affect press freedoms. As a result the UNESCO mission proposed to all concerned parties that a new press law was necessary in order to explicitly guarantee media freedom, protect journalists rights and to reduce possibilities of executive fiat.

The Indonesian Ministry of Information reacted favourably to the UNESCO’s mission proposals and prepared accordingly a draft press law to replace existing regulations and ministerial decrees relating to the press. The new draft law guarantees freedom of the press and most importantly foresees punishable offences for obstructing the legitimate functions of the press: the government authorities are obliged to provide information to newspapers. Censoring and banning of newspapers are illegal. The draft Act also proposes the abolishment of licensing requirements and recommends a simple registration of newspapers. An independent press council nominated by the media community and without government representation will be established to adjudicate complaints against the press.

Indonesia is scheduled to hold elections in 1999 and UNESCO recommended to the authorities that the draft press law be adopted by parliament before the voters go to the electoral booths. Many Indonesians blame the shortcomings of the previous government – to adequately address economic challenges, to root our corrupt tendencies and to respond to the needs and demands of citizens – primarily on the lack of a system that would have guaranteed the free flow of information in the Indonesian society and to act as a watch dog on the executive.

As Indonesia democratises, it needs independent and pluralist media to buttress its democracy and consolidate good governance. Good governance implies accountability to the people, transparent administration of public affairs and participation by the people in promoting accountability in public decision-making processes. A vibrant Indonesian free press that can investigate and comment upon matters of pubic interest is essential to ensure that matters of public interest are properly understood and debated by the public.

To help Indonesian journalists to better fulfil their roles, UNESCO has developed a press freedom project with the aim of addressing the short-term and long-term requirements of the media. The activities concern advocacy and awareness raising by the press in a democracy, attitude change and obligations of audiovisual media to introduce news programmes and public discussions as a means of strengthening civic and democratic practices, and production of vernacular journalism training materials to replace old training materials.

It is hoped that the launching of the project in Indonesia will not be an end in itself but will enable UNESCO and Indonesian media practitioners in strengthening the role of the media in the country.