Mass Media Critics Against Jokowi Likely to Spur Public Hysteria

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Being the President of a country like Indonesia is not an easy task as whoever fills in the Presidential hot seat has to be mentally prepared for any kind of criticism from the public, government staff and the media. It cannot be denied that not a single Indonesian President was immune to criticism.

This is not due to their incapability but because the large variety of issues ranging from political to social for a country as big as Indonesia are quite impossible to be addressed all at once, not to mention the general public comes from differing background and present disparate stances on many aspects thereby causing for the problem to be harder to fix than it looks.

There was a widespread rumor suggesting that President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo can no longer tolerate nationwide mass media whose recent headlines packaged in a way to criticize the government's decisions on a wide range of aspects.

Recently appointed Cabinet Seretary, Pramono Anung Widodo rejected such rumor and immediately provided neccesary clarifications claiming that the President is one figure who openly accepts and respects any form of criticism especially constructive ones.

Pramono said that during the meeting between  Jokowi and scores of editor in chief from a number of leading mass media outlet, the man stated in his speech on the 14th of August 2015 that much of their published news seem to be inconsistent with one another, especially when it comes to examining government's policies. He was learned to have said that mass media sought for high rating and therefore make unnecessary ‎judgment on government policies.

"Those in the relevant institution or those who profess as news maker ought understand and avoid interpreting President Jokowi's remarks in a largely ambiguous way. He is fine with criticism from the media even if some of the critics are irrelevant and lacking in analysis just for the sake of higher rating or mere sensation. The President however, is worried over the fact that much of the news published contain only criticism and gradually outnumbering stories on the country's actual, often neglected achievements. It seems like negativity reigns over the positive ones," Pramono said, Friday (21/8/2015).

According to him, the media has to know the immediate, often negative repercussion to the news they publish. Indonesian nationwide audience is susceptible to the notion of 'public hysteria' where they believe anything that is presented in the mot controversial and sensational ways and most of the time make hasty conclusions. (Akp/Rie)