POSITIVE JOURNALISM

This is the term that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has used to express his expectation that print and electronic media in the country do not publish the “bad news” only with negative lights but also with “possible solutions”. He conveyed the term when he received the ANTARA News Service's Board of Directors in Jakarta on Thursday (28/2). Despite a possibility that the term positive journalism is unpopular, the head of state’s message is clear and understandable. What he does want all gatekeepers within the Indonesian media from the lowest to the highest ranks to do is how to encourage the Indonesian people to remain confident in their bright future as a nation.
Indeed, two important functions of media anywhere in the free world are watchdog of the government and educating the public. In return, what the media serve are not only read but also critically watched by the public through what we know as media watch. In the case of Indonesia, since the early term of Yudhoyono in power, the country has continuously undergone various natural and man-made tragedies --- the Aceh-Nias tsunami, the Yogyakarta earthquake, the everlasting flooding in Java, the serious threats of bird flu, the East Java’s Porong mud volcano, the increasing prices of world’s oil, the ongoing scarcity of soybean, and the high prices of rice and cooking oil. For ordinary Indonesians, such as factory workers, mini bus drivers and even journalists, the skyrocketing prices of staple food and fuels are their daily disasters. These all challenging things have understandably caused more Indonesians to have reasons to be worried about the future. Amid this situation, the government does need the partnership of media that can create optimism rather than spreading pessimism to the public. If we see everything from a positive point of view, whatever tragedies we have may become positive lessons. For example, God has given us a motherland, scientifically known as “a ring of fire”. We can not reject the given land. What we can only do is how to survive. With the brain we have, we can maintain our normal lives as the Japanese or American people do. The Americans are hit by deadly natural disasters, such as hurricanes, with great impact to human life and economy every year but they survive and are able to maintain their status as the only superpower. A lot of American higher institutions also remain the best in the world. Thus, the God’s challenges are actually opportunities for us to progress. The world’s science and technology, and international cooperation can progressively pushed by the challenging problems. Now, the question that is left for us is whether or not we want to deal with the challenges seriously and smartly. If we just surrender to those disasters, don't blame anybody if we only become the victims while the benefits from our miseries are enjoyed by others. The bird flu pandemic, which has claimed more than 100 lives and caused losses of millions of dollars to poultry industries in the country, is a good example of how Indonesia needs to react. To some extent, the Indonesian media have indeed played their positive role in alarming the government and monitoring the way its handles it, creating correct public awareness, as well as publishing what Indonesia actually wants from the virus samples that it regularly send to the WHO. Thanks to the Indonesian media, the critical thoughts of the Indonesian health minister about the mistreatment of the world’s powerful UN and USA in using the Indonesian bird flu virus samples can spread worldwide.
The current mass media cannot neglect the market pressure in order to enable them to keep surviving financially, but they also still care of the public interest. It is not fair if the government just wants the media to provide the public with positive-journalism-driven stories while it does not work hard and smartly to serve the public and resolve the nation’s problems. The government can not expect the media with a blank check because the good public relation is telling the facts in accordance with their context. Positive journalism does not mean that the Indonesian media are to conceal the facts on the behalf of "national unity and integrity" but at the same time the government ignores its people. The government officials need also behave professionally and openly whenever they are approached by crusading journalists. With such this new mind set, the media can lead the policy and decision makers to correct process of policy and decision making, and also lead the public to healthy discourse debate.