Jakarta bombings and the presumption of guilt

Sirikit Syah , Surabaya | Sun, 07/26/2009 11:56 AM | Opinion

Every journalist should know about the presumption of innocence when covering events. The journalist *code of ethics' forbids judgement or trial by the media.

But this past week, we as media consumers have witnessed the madness of media coverage over the Jakarta bombings, none more so than when publications named suspects. Without a proper trial, even without sufficient investigation or evidence, people's names were published and action was taken.

Imagine if you were Arini, or her parents, or children. Being detained by the police for a crime her husband possibly committed is far from the justice that we, as a nation, believe in.

She was arrested after police raided her Cilicap home in a scene so dramatic it would not have been out of place in a Hollywood film. The media treated her like a criminal and violated her privacy. Why? She is suspected of being the wife of Noordin M. Top, a terrorist fugitive.

It reminded me of an incident that occurred in East Java in 2003. An ODHA (person living with HIV/AIDS) at Dr. Soetomo Hospital in Surabaya was identified in a newspaper, completed with pictures and information about his ethnicity and the members of his family. Immediately following the publication of the report, his wife, a teacher in a small town in Madura, was fired. Her students and fellow teachers avoided her, depriving her of work and social interactions. Her husband was not a criminal - he contracted a disease. His wife however suffered significantly from this report.

What about the wives and family members of Ibrahim and Nur Sahid? Have the media thought about that?

What will become of them once this situation has died down, especially if their husbands are proven innocent? Can they get their lives back on track and their names reinstated? Media publications often trigger irrevocable consequences. Once teh damage is done, it normally cannot be undone.

Authoritative sources are valid, which is why it is justifiable for reporters to question and quote police about any developments into their investigations. But the police are not the only source of the truth.

In the case of Ibrahim and Nur Sahid, their names were mentioned too soon and they were not given a chance to be proven innocent. Since this article was written, no apology has been offered by the police or the media to those wrongly accused of being involved in the bombing.

The police and the media, apparently cooperating at some strong level, simply dropped names however they liked. When they were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing or involvement, the police simply clarified the situation without a sense of responsibility or empathy.

The fact Indonesia has a free press is a prestige we should be proud of when looking at our close regional neighbors. However, press freedom without a sense of ethics, law or a sense of responsibility, will turn our democracy into chaos.

Violations of privacy, defamation and libel has the potential to damage social order. The only way to stop this from occurring is to strongly implement ethics and law. Governments, political parties, parliaments and pressure groups should not have the authority to ban or directly control the press. But ethics and law does hold that sway.

The most basic principal of journalism is to write a headline and lead paragraph based on facts gathered from reporting.

You cannot write headlines or leads based on assumptions or opinions, unless you are prepared for the consequence (of being sued for defamation).

Not only the print media, with its problems of opinionated headlines and sadistic pictures (blood and bodies), but broadcast media, particularly television, has created fabricated drama out of this incident.

The repetition of certain CCTV clips by the police and media has led to those in the footage being framed as real criminals. Talk shows with guests calling themselves *experts on terrorism and bombs' has created a new kind of celebrity in the media. A *kyai' emerging from nowhere as an unknown source suddenly appears on TV shows pointing to Nur Sur as being responsible for the bombings. The media simply amplified these questionable opinions as if they were the truth.

The press, the fourth pillar of democracy, is a candle in the darkness of "terrorist" world politics. Stop naming the bombers without proper investigation.

Quoting the writer of Black Swan, Nassim N. Taleb, even if all terrorists globally were Muslims, we still cannot say that Muslims are terrorists. The terrorists are less than 0.001 percent of all Muslims worldwide. Journalists must return to the foundations of good journalism: no labelling, no stereotyping, no presumption of guilt, no trial by the media. Let's keep our freedom of the press on the right path.

The writer is a journalist.