Implementation of Legal Protection for Journalists in Safeguarding

Local Democracy

Syafriadi, Rani Fadhilla Syafrinaldi

Law Faculty, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Keywords:

Local Democracy, Legal Protection, Journalists.

Abstract:

One of the reasons for the decline in Indonesia’s ranking in the freedom of the press and expression was due to

the many cases of violence against journalists and the criminalization of those who expressed their opinions.

Legal protection for journalists is a guarantee given by the government and the public to journalists in carrying

out their journalistic duties. The study used an empirical legal approach or non- doctrinal research. This

research was conducted in several media from 2011-2018 in Pekanbaru, Riau, Indonesia. The main ﬁndings of

this study indicate that the phrase of ”protection” in the formulation of Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the

press has given rise to multiple interpretations which resulted in journalists experiencing pressure in carrying

out their duties. In conclusion, it is highly recommended that the law should be revised.

1 INTRODUCTION

In Indonesia, the portrait of freedom of the press and

expression in 2015 was considered blurry. This was

marked by the decline in Indonesia’s ranking in the

eyes of Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), an organi-

zation that ranks press freedom and expression . In

Southeast Asia, freedom of the press and expression

of Indonesia is under Thailand, a country that is cur-

rently under the junta. Thailand ranks 134th (?).

In line with the theory of equality before the law,

the protection has placed journalists as people who

must be privileged. In relation to the rule of law

(rechtsstaat), every citizen must be treated fairly by

law enforcement ofﬁcials and the government.

To strengthen the democracy existence, the press

has a very strategic role because its position is con-

sidered as the fourth pillar of democracy. As a social

control, the press is able to strengthen the democrati-

zation and governance so that the government runs on

the ”right and right path”.

Democracy has the basic principle of human dig-

nity and human rights that are respected and protected

without discrimination. Democracy also has what are

called constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, includ-

ing the right to independence (Oetama, 2001; ?; ?).

Freedom of the press is a form of popular sovereignty

and an important element in creating a democratic so-

ciety, nation and state life.

From the study by (Dusterhoft, 2013; ?; Batubara,

2008) in Canada, it will be argued that the legal pro-

tections are in fact sufﬁcient and hardly amendable

and that therefore, a more practical, hands-on ap-

proach to implementation of those protections must

be the focus of future actions. This goal can only be

achieved by a comprehensive mission jointly pursued

by governments, militaries, journalists, media, NGOs

and society.

Article 28 of the 1945 Constitution states that

”Freedom of association and assembly shall express

thoughts through orally and in writing and so forth

shall be determined by law”. The term ”indepen-

dence” in the formulation of this article contains two

meanings, namely ﬁrst, freedom of speech and sec-

ond, freedom of the press. The ﬁrst independence is

freedom of expression in public, while the second is

freedom of the press. The formulation of the article

was expanded in scope by Article 28F which states,

”Every person has the right to communicate and ob-

tain information to develop his personal and social

environment, and has the right to seek, obtain, own,

store, process, and convey information using all types

of channels that are available”.

Indonesia Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning

Press in principle also regulates the freedom of the

press, but to determine whether Indonesia has a free

press system (free from bans) is very difﬁcult. This is

because there are various laws and regulations which

can threaten the freedom of the press itself. Besides

being found in the Criminal Code, these threats are

246

Syafriadi, . and Syafrinaldi, R.

Implementation of Legal Protection for Journalists in Safeguarding Local Democracy.

DOI: 10.5220/0009119002460250

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity (ICoSEEH 2019) - Sustainable Development in Developing Country for Facing Industrial

Revolution 4.0, pages 246-250

ISBN: 978-989-758-464-0

also found in Law Number 11 of 2008 or the Informa-

tion and Electronic Transactions Act which was later

changed to Law Number 19 of 2016. Other threats

can be found in Law Number 40 of 2007 concerning

Limited Liability Companies and the Law 44 of 2008

concerning Pornography.

In a democratic country press freedom is needed

as an instrument to convey true information both to

the public and to the parties concerned, as an instru-

ment of free exchange of ideas (free market of ideas),

as an instrument of change and progress (agent of

change), as an instrument of guard social order (pub-

lic or social order), as an instrument of control over

power, as an instrument that helps deliver the ideals

of the nation to realize prosperity and prosperity for

all people, and as an instrument of spreading human

values, building mutual understanding, openness and

tolerance.

In Indonesia, the implementation of democracy

during the Reform Era was always claimed by the

Pancasila Democracy system which was different

from liberal democracy in general which prioritized

the majority vote in decision making. Pancasila

democracy is a unity that cannot be separated from the

precepts of Pancasila whose implementation is im-

bued with popular precepts led by wisdom of wisdom

in deliberation / representation, which is in the belief

of the Almighty, with a just and civilized humanity,

the unity of Indonesia and social justice for wisdom.

all Indonesian people. Thus the freedom of the press

regulated in the Press Law is guided by this demo-

cratic system, and this results in the press not being

able to provide information openly (transparency) to

the public.

2 METHOD

This study used an empirical legal research method

or was commonly known as non-doctrinal research,

which reviews and analyzes primary data from re-

spondents juridically. The nature of research used is

analytical descriptive, where the data analysis is not

only parsing from the acquisition of research data but

also analyzing primary data using theory and legisla-

tion in Indonesia.

Several legislations which are cited as references

include Article 28 of the 1945 Constitution states, In-

donesia Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning Press

that related to legal protection for journalists. The pe-

riod of research was conducted on journalists work-

ing between 0-5 years, 5-10 years and 10-15 years in

ﬁve print media, namely the Riau Pos Morning Daily,

Pekanbaru Tribun Daily, Metro Riau Daily, Tabloid

AZAM weekly and other journalists who worked in

various media including online media.

3 DISCUSSION

3.1 Press and Democracy

The press in this paper is the aggregate of publications

issuing from the press, or the giving publicity to one’s

sentiments and opinions through the medium of print-

ing; as in the phase ”liberty of press” freedom of the

press is guaranteed by the ﬁrst amendment (?; Duster-

hoft, 2013; Eriyanto, 2001) The term press or press is

interpreted as presssus (Latin) which means pressure,

pressured, crushed, solid. The press in the Indone-

sian vocabulary contains the meaning ”press” (En-

glish) connoted as a printing press or media press. In

Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press, the ter-

minology is interpreted as a media that has the func-

tion of information media, education, entertainment,

social control and can also be an economic institution.

In Article 1 of the Press Law it is said that the Press is

a social institution and a vehicle for mass communica-

tion which carries out journalistic activities including

searching, obtaining, possessing, storing, processing,

and conveying information in the form of text, sound,

pictures, sounds and pictures, and data and graphics

and in other forms by using print media, electronic

media, and all types of available channels.

Legal protection is a guarantee of protection given

by the government and the public to journalists in car-

rying out their functions, rights, obligations and role

as a journalist. This guarantee is given because the

work habits of journalists are always in a depressed

situation because they are pursued by deadlines, their

work is very binding and demands for actuality in the

delivery of information.

Democracy is a set of ideas about freedom that

gives people space to participate in politics. The

press is an inseparable part of democratic life, and

is a barometer of the successful implementation of

democracy. In the climate of independence, the press

has a very strategic role to control the running of gov-

ernment by the executive, legislative and judiciary.

The democratization of the press is a form of popu-

lar sovereignty based on the principles of democracy,

justice and the rule of law and its implementation is

guaranteed as a human right of citizens.

In an effort to create a sterile press from power, the

press should be positioned as a means of exchanging

information to build a mindset of an intelligent and

critical society. This is based on several considera-

tions. First, the press is still colored by the voice of

Implementation of Legal Protection for Journalists in Safeguarding Local Democracy

247

the authorities even though the press has a journalistic

code of ethics which is the basis of professionalism in

carrying out their duties, but in practice journalists are

often confronted with the jargon, ”a free and responsi-

ble press” which puts journalists in a losing position.

Second, the public and the authorities have not fully

appreciated the professionalism of journalists. Many

of the torture, harassment and intimidation that they

experience in investigating information by both ofﬁ-

cials and the public. Third, the presence of the press

which is parallel to the history of the birth of the na-

tion played a major role in the independence move-

ment, but after Indonesia’s independence the press

had not been placed honorably in advancing the na-

tion and shaping the character of the nation’s children.

The high demand for professionalism tends to

make the press the potential to violate journalistic per-

formance. Such violations are reﬂected in the ways

in which the press presents news that tends to vio-

late the code of ethics. The violation occurred due

to credible resourches, weak recruitment patterns of

journalists and the lack of understanding of the KEJ

and the Press Law as guidelines for the implementa-

tion of professional duties. This implies that the face

of the press often appears partisan and has not been

able to position itself as a pillar of democracy, espe-

cially in presenting political news such as coverage of

general elections, regional elections where the press

is actively involved in the political game.

3.2 Guard Local Democracy

The terminology of location democracy is used in this

study because the locus is in Pekanbaru, Riau, In-

donesia. Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau Province,

and the third city on the island of Sumatra with

the best economic growth. The implementation of

democracy in this city takes place in the election

of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Governor and Deputy

Governor, Election of President and Vice President,

and Legislative Election which cycle runs once in ﬁve

years as determined by statutory regulations. As the

fourth pillar of democracy (the four of estate), the

press has a strategic role in guarding the running of

local democracy.

The author underlines the importance of institu-

tions outside the government taking the right position

so that local democratization runs well in accordance

with the principles of fair and just elections. The in-

stitution is the local media or press. The press is be-

lieved to be the guardian of democracy to prevent the

wrong implementation of democracy in violation of

the rules. This means that the role of the press at the

local level can be as signiﬁcant as their counterparts

at the central level (Indrakrista, 2015; Esser, 1999;

Harahap, 2003).

Carry out duties as a journalist full of dynamics

and challenges. Besides requiring interviewing and

writing skills, a journalist is also required to under-

stand the Law, comply with various other regulations

and obey the Journalistic Code of Ethics. This under-

standing is needed so that the achievement of infor-

mation in the media does not lead to legal problems

or cause harm to others (Indrakrista, 2015; Kusuman-

ingrat, 2009; Oetama, 2001).

In Pekanbaru, there are 1,256 journalists working

in print, electronic and online media. Risks in carry-

ing out the profession are believed by journalists, es-

pecially in covering political and criminal news. The

observation of 100 journalists as respondents who

carry out journalistic activities throughout the years

2011-2018 concluded that as many as 80% of respon-

dents claimed that the journalistic profession was very

risky, 12% risky and only 8% of respondents said it

was normal, while the other 4% claimed to have never

experienced any risk while on duty.

Figure 1: Risk and Experiences of Journalist

In the author’s research, among the risks experienced

by journalists in carrying out their duties are ter-

ror, deprivation of work equipment and other physi-

cal pressure (see picture).(Pendidikan, ; Siregar and

Haryanto, 2006; Thohir, 2011) Deprivation of work

equipment can be in the form of forced taking of

photo cameras and video cameras belonging to jour-

nalists. Other physical pressure can be in the form

of threats received by reporters through cellular chan-

nels, sms, whattshap or other physical pressure that

is delivered directly to reporters both while they are

interviewing and after the information is presented in

the media. The higher the social status of the intervie-

wees, the more relevant they are to serving journalists.

The theme of the interview also affects the attitudes

and perspectives of the resource persons in opening

up to journalists. As for the themes that are central

and strategic related to their involvement in certain

cases such as corruption, resource persons tend to ap-

pear emotion and close themselves, they even have a

tendency to ﬁnd ways so that journalists do not feel

at home doing interview work. In the account of the

ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity

248

Indonesian Journalistic Alliance Pekanbaru Branch,

only a few cases of violence befell journalists who

were concerned or ﬁnished up in court.

If in Fried S Siebert’s libertarian press theory the

press is identical to the principles and values of a lib-

eral democratic state, namely the belief in individual

excellence, common sense, truth, progress and ulti-

mately people’s sovereignty, then press liberalization

in Indonesia in the Press Law is strongly inﬂuenced

by action the government and the community in car-

rying out the role and function of the media. In the

author’s study, such a dependency is tantamount to

giving a blank check to the media in carrying out

press professionalism. Professionalism only makes

the press swayed by the atmosphere of mysticism

from the government and society. This is very detri-

mental to the press in guarding local democracy.

Through observation, the writer also observes the

neutrality of journalists in carrying out the profession-

alism of the press as instructed by the Press Law. This

can be seen from their involvement in the successful

team of winning one of the candidate pairs both in the

election of mayor and vice mayor, election of gov-

ernor and vice governor as well as in the election of

president and vice president. In addition, they are also

involved in being administrators of certain political

parties so that the editorial policy of journalist report-

ing ends in two blades, namely one side wants to be

the guardian of democracy on the other hand carrying

out professionalism of the press. The phenomenon of

these two blades contributes to the breaking of liber-

tarian theory in Siebert’s view.

3.3 Effectiveness of Journalist

Protection

The freedom of press becomes the main prerequi-

site for democracy. As a country that embraces

democracy, Indonesia also needs press freedom so

that democracy can develop and be well maintained.

The Press Law provides legal protection for journal-

istic workers to carry out their profession freely and

independently. Such protection is afﬁrmed by Article

8 of Law No. 40 of 1999 which stated, ”In carry-

ing out his profession, journalists receive legal pro-

tection”. What is meant by ”legal protection” by this

law is the guarantee of the protection of the Govern-

ment and or the community to journalists in carrying

out their functions, rights, obligations and roles fol-

lowing statutory provisions.

Is it true that reporters get legal protection? The

question is easily difﬁcult to answer. Because journal-

ists are no different from doctors, advocates, teachers,

politicians, academics, bureaucrats and laborers, all

of whom are children of the nation who are protected

constitutionally. The same protection is given to the

children of the nation in accordance with the princi-

ple of equality before the law. The principle of Equal-

ity comes from the recognition of individual freedom,

one of which was stated by Thomas Jefferson. Jef-

ferson stated that ”that all men are created equal” es-

pecially in relation to basic human rights. Article 27

Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution conﬁrms that

all citizens must have the same position in the law

and the government must uphold the law without ex-

ception. Thus the concept of equality before the law

has been introduced into the constitution. The prob-

lem is how to understand the formulation of the pro-

visions of the law. When using the classic 5W + 1H

inverted pyramid writing formula, the question of le-

gal protection for journalists revolves around: ”What,

Who, Where, When, Why and How”. Or ”What,

Who, Why, When, Where and How”. This formula

which until now has been difﬁcult to translate because

Article 8 of the Press Law itself invites multiple inter-

pretations.

The same problem is experienced by journalists

in Pekanbaru. In assessing the position of Article 8

journalists have different views. There are those who

think the article is able to provide protection in their

duties, while others also state that the law is unable

to protect them in the ﬁeld. Survey of writers in a

number of Pekanbaru print media said, 73% of re-

spondents felt protected by the Press Law, 19% of

respondents said they were unprotected, and 8% of

respondents said they did not know.

There are several reasons why respondents feel

they are protected by the Press Law. First, the im-

plementation of functions, rights, obligations and the

role of the press in the Press Law is more secure than

Law No. 21 of 1982. Second, the emergence of pub-

lic awareness using the right channel of responsibility

and the right of correction in the event of an error in

media reporting. The use of the right of reply and the

right of correction although it is felt by the community

is not optimal can restore the good name and can also

reduce anti-press measures. Third, there is a Mem-

orandum of Understanding between the Press Coun-

cil and the National Police in handling reports related

to press reporting so that the police do not necessar-

ily process any public complaints. Fourthly, journal-

ists’ awareness of obeying journalistic code of ethics

(KEJ) emerged.

Respondents who thought that the Press Law had

not been effective in protecting them in the ﬁeld said

that the interpretation of Article 8 that stated, ”in car-

rying out their profession journalists receive legal pro-

tection”, contains multiple meanings so it is difﬁcult

Implementation of Legal Protection for Journalists in Safeguarding Local Democracy

249

to be concrete imperative. The explanation in Article

8 only states that what is meant by ”legal protection”

is a guarantee of the protection of the Government and

or the community to journalists in carrying out their

functions, rights, obligations and roles. However, the

formulation of guarantees from the government and

the community is not explained by the law. In the

theory of Human Rights the protection of journalists

is part of human rights related to journalistic tasks,

which include the right to seek, obtain, possess, store,

process, and convey information (6M). Protection of

human rights is not only a guarantee for the state to

protect human rights but also to be reactive in taking

legal action if violations occur.

Several actions that could interfere with press

freedom. First, through legislation, including the

Limited Liability Company Law, the Consumer Pro-

tection Act, the Copyright Act and a number of arti-

cles in the Criminal Code that can make journalists go

to jail. Second, through bureaucracy or apparatus, for

example excessive apparatus actions such as limiting

journalists’ space, depriving journalists of equipment,

beatings, torture and various actions and behaviors

that are hampering the implementation of journalistic

tasks. Third, through the act of ”vigilante” by vari-

ous groups in the community when there are news and

writings that are considered harmful. Including ways

thugs approach the media ofﬁce, threatening and ter-

rorizing to the destruction of the media ofﬁce (Siregar

and Haryanto, 2006). Terror, appropriation of work

equipment and vigilantism are often experienced by

journalists when they are on duty in the ﬁeld. Some-

times these actions are resolved by journalists them-

selves, some of whom report to the media in charge.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Media managers face a dilemmatic situation between

upholding the professionalism of the press and the

conditions in the ﬁeld that hurt press freedom. Injury

arises from the public in various actions and deeds,

interest groups (economic and political), and well-

established groups who feel disturbed by the press

and the politicization of the press by journalists them-

selves who run the politics of reporting two blades.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We need to express our appreciation and thank for all

parties that have contributed for completing this study

and report. To Rector of Universitas Islam Riau, we

also would like to thanks for all great supports.

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