In his speech on behalf of Communication and Informatics Minister Tifatul Sembiring, the minister`s Senior Advisor for Mass Communications and Media Henry Subiakto said ANTARA was expected to remain objective and factual as well as balanced and impartial in reporting events.
"We will not ask ANTARA to become the government`s microphone but we ask ANTARA to remain in its position by being objective and impartial," he said.
He said it was enough for ANTARA to be objective and impartial to play a balancing role in news reporting in the country.
He said the reality that has developed so far is that news has often been reported not according to facts and in a balanced way impressing that conditions in Indonesia have become worse in all sectors.
"Economic and political realities are described against the facts. Every day there are always reports of conflicts but on the other hand development in the country has been extraordinary with the country`s foreign exchange reserves now reaching more than US$100 billion," he said.
He said due to that people had been asking which information could actually be trusted.
In view of that he suggested that ANTARA remains to be objective and factual as well as balanced and neutral in its reporting.
"That way ANTARA will remain a trusted media," he said.
He said if a media was not objective and clear in its reporting it would never become a down-to-earth media.
He said realities in Indonesia are very complex and a lot of different interests are involved in them.
"Therefore ANTARA must be able to take a role of balancing by providing objective and impartial information," he said.
(T.H016*R017/H-YH/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Luki Satrio
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
