HOW TO GET GOOD PUBLICITY? BAN JOURNOS
A tip for politicians worried about bothersome journos upsetting talking points with probing questions: Don't invite peskies to your pressies.
Instead, gather a bevy of narcissists who call themselves social media 'influencers' and take them to anything they want to admire while being admired.
Lovelies telling their fans of a wonderful government makes for easier viewing than seeing knockabout wordsmiths stuffing mikes up newsmakers’ nostrils for a denial of the obvious.
It's a more subtle system than the Australian tactic of only inviting on-side journos to junkets, but the policy of outgoing Indonesian President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo goes further.
He's using it to sell the benefits of his new cash-hungry separate city project Ibu Kota - (capital city) Nusantara on East Kalimantan, a province on Borneo Island.
Objective journalists, economists and academics in Indonesia and overseas -mainly Australia - have been dissecting the $45 billion (so far) vanity cash splash in a nation with great needs, like helping almost 26 million poor get decent housing rather than the Prez getting a third palace.
The pragmatists reckon IKN will drown the Republic in further debt and isn’t the right raft for the sinking, overcrowded and polluted capital Jakarta.
The problem is serious and a new city one solution - preferably in Java, the political, administrative and cultural centre of the Republic.
Malaysia's answer to an over-stressed Kuala Lumpur was to build Putrajaya 35 km down the rail line and make it the admin centre. The Parliament and many ministries remain in nearby KL so the shift has been half-hearted.
IKN is 1,200 km northwest of Jakarta, so public servants will need to abandon their families to keep their jobs. Few are enthusiastic.
Jokowi has stomped around China and the Arab world seeking monster loans to keep the concrete pouring but there’s been much reluctance since the Japanese SoftBank knocked back the chance to be a lead investor.
This was despite tax breaks and other sweeteners, though no guarantees of handsome returns; the new city's business will be manufacturing undesired bureaucracies rather than wanted consumer goods.
Australian super funds haven’t been persuaded by ‘influencers’ to risk members’ monies in the Jokowi dream. Jakarta’s record for corruption (ranked 115th among 180 countries surveyed by Transparency International) would have frightened decision makers.
Indonesian Press Council Chairperson Dr Ninik Rahayu wasn’t happy with the new policy of by-passing the media: "I was surprised why the president came yesterday to the IKN and invited YouTubers and influencers. ”
Her awkward discovery is that superficial presenters pull millions when old media lurking behind paywalls only draws a few lakh. Ninik’s reasoning is right for the public good - though not the pollies’ interests:
“(Jokowi) should have invited the press (to) … see all the comprehensive policies of the IKN so the public knows all about the new capital city”, she said, claiming reporters use “journalistic principles, work democratically and professionally and present high-quality news.”
The IPC was set up by the authoritarian Soeharto government last century to keep scribes in check. Media conference attendees got snacks and uang lelah, a practice your correspondent has experienced. (The cash was returned to the organisers' astonishment. The food was eaten.)
This century the Council became an independent authority. One academic wrote that it has ‘outstanding powers to draft and ratify regulations about media accountability, to arbitrate complaints against journalists, to cultivate media professionalism, and to safeguard press freedom.’
All good - but it can’t stop newsmakers talking to ‘influencers’ rather than the media.
The international agency Reporters Without Borders press freedom index ranks the world's fourth largest nation at 111 from 180 countries.
Last month Tempo weekly published an analysis of Jokowi's rule titled A Decade of Declining Democracy, claiming he’d “transformed Indonesia into a country characterized by autocratic legalism.”
A day later Jokowi publicly apologised for his shortcomings - the Jakarta Post reported he 'tearfully' accepted he’d made mistakes.
The daily listed these as “the regression of democratic values and governance with intimidation against government critics and political opponents as well as shrinking public participation in legislation.”
The Jakarta Post list should have included murder. In late June TV journalist Rico Sempurna Pasaribu, died alongside his wife, son and grandchild when his home was firebombed.
He’s been investigating a gambling syndicate allegedly involving the military in North Sumatra. Three months earlier in the same region another journo who’d been checking the drug trade also had his house torched.
Last year the Alliance of Independent Journalists recorded ”89 cases of attacks and obstruction involving 83 individuals, five groups and 15 media outlets’.
Anita Wahid, a daughter of the late Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), Indonesia’s reformist fourth president (1999 - 2001), is now a PhD student at ANU.
She’s written that the targets “were mainly reporting on “public accountability, corruption, social and criminal issues, and environmental issues.
“The attacks included verbal and physical threats (including torture, confinement and kidnappings), gender-based sexual harassment and assaults, terror and intimidation.”
The 1999 Indonesia Press Law is supposed to guarantee media protection and citizens' right to information. It doesn't.
Jokowi's fauxpology is a typical Javanese gesture that will make no difference. His successor taking over in October is the disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto, a man unfamiliar with the word 'sorry'.
The word on the street is that Prabowo will continue crushing critics. Whether this means more ‘influencers’ and fewer reporters will become apparent as Prabowo settles into the Jakarta Palace.
Anita Wahid again: ”Journalists are needed now more than ever to monitor a government that has adopted increasingly authoritarian practices, in addition to rising corruption and human rights violations.”
Who'd want a journo’s job in Indonesia when the threats are real and fearful? Better start a shopping website and get the VIPs keen to chat about their smart doings without the scrutiny needed to keep the bastards honest.
First published in Pearls & Irritations, 8 August 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/how-to-get-good-publicity-ban-journos/
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