By: Aceng Syamsul Hadie, S.Sos.,MM.
Chairman of the ASWIN board of trustees
The excitement of commemorating National Press Day (HPN) 2025 echoes in every space and time, national press personnel are happy to celebrate it both in big cities and in the regions. They are enthusiastically excited with full hope that press freedom will soon be realized, even though they are aware that press freedom in Indonesia is still very far from expectations, where national press freedom is still shackled to this day. The reality is that most national press personnel still often receive discriminatory treatment, even if we want to examine and read local media in the regions, there are many cases of journalists in carrying out their duties, especially receiving bad treatment and actions from those in power in the regions, such as intimidation, persecution and criminalization.
In fact, the press is a pillar of democracy that has an important role in maintaining and developing democracy in a country, while press freedom is a citizen’s basic right regulated in the 1945 Constitution and the Press Law No. 40 of 1999, conceptually press freedom will give rise to a smart, wise, and clean government. The press in a democracy has an important role, namely fulfilling the people’s right to obtain and know information, to be able to know various events, including government performance, so that a check and balance mechanism emerges, control over power, or the community itself and upholds the basic values of democracy, makes the supremacy of law occur and run and encourages the creation of a complete Human Rights.
The ideal concept explained above for national journalists is not really felt, what exists is that they often get discriminatory treatment, those in power often differentiate between some journalists and others, not a few journalists experience intimidation and persecution because they are afraid of revealing cases of violations and abuses in their duties and implementation of government programs, there are also some who are criminalized on the pretext of having violated their good name, carried out unpleasant actions or made hoax news and others.
We need to know that the existence of the press abroad has a high position, where they have a position as social control in criticizing and criticizing the performance of the government in order to realize a clean and democratic government. There is no democracy without freedom of the press, democracy will not be realized without freedom of the press, that was the expression of the third former President of the United States Thomas Jefferson, even Jefferson explained that freedom of the press is an important right and cannot be limited and is part of individual freedom and must be maintained. Our freedom depends on press freedom, and that freedom cannot be limited without losing anything, when the press is silenced, then all efforts for the public interest will be eliminated, without press freedom, then there is certainly no guarantee of protection of human rights.
Why has press freedom in Indonesia not been realized as hoped by national press personnel? This is an interesting question and must be answered, because everything that happens must have a reason. Here the author tries to answer with a simple analysis and based on research on several cases in the field that befell journalists in the regions. After being reviewed, analyzed and researched, there are several factors that cause such conditions, including; First, the poor performance of the Press Council, Second, there is no political will from the government to build press freedom as a whole, Third, the failure to fulfill the unity of national press personnel. For the third factor, the author will explain in detail in the next article.
Jakarta,February 12,2025
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