Old excesses remain. Last month, when former armed forces chief General Wiranto was resisting pressure from Wahid to quit, and immediately afterwards, he is said to have bought radio and TV air time where he was asked soft questions by tame questioners. There are other complaints of the media going too far. Defamation laws appear unenforceable. Claims of corruption sometimes are made with little proof.
Officials regularly complain they are misquoted.
Media excesses are compounded by the lack of training for the thousands of journalists hired in the explosion of new media outlets. Scurrilous articles get printed all the time and the hapless victims can't do much about it. Many journalists have a lot of enthusiasm, courage and commitment, but they lack proper experience and professionalism. But others exercise caution and self-censorship, declining to identify those involved in sectarian strife for fear of exacerbating tension. Dharmawan Ronodipuro, the director of President Wahid's press and media office, says the media should exercise more balance in reporting ethnic and religious strife, but gone are the days when the presidential office can impose its version of what that balance is.