JOURNALISTS, WHO DO YOU SERVE: OFFICIALS OR THE PEOPLE? NETTI HERAWATI’S QUESTION LOOKS SIMPLE, BUT IT CUTS DEEP
.png){kind=small}
Smallest Font
Largest Font
JAKARTA, NETTINPO.. Com
One question from Netti Herawati just slapped every newsroom awake: *“As a journalist, have you served Indonesia? In this case, which Indonesia have you helped: the government, officials, ministries, the council, or the people?”
The question stings because it is honest. Amid a flood of press releases and staged press conferences, many journalists have lost their compass. Pens that should be sharp toward power go dull when facing authority. The sharpness gets used downward instead, on ordinary people who cannot hold a press conference.
Service as PR vs Service on the Ground
“Serving Indonesia” can mean many things. Some feel they have served because they published every minister’s statement untouched. Some feel they have served because they secured ads from state companies. Some feel they have served because they got invited to officials’ WhatsApp groups.
But Netti Herawati challenges that definition. *Which Indonesia?* If you only help air-conditioned offices, who helps citizens scammed in Cambodia? Who helps migrant workers with docked wages? Who helps farmers whose land gets seized?
Journalism that only echoes press releases is not service. That is a _booking order_. Real service takes guts: fact-check what officials say, dig into budget data, go to villages that never make TV.
What Do You Hold On To?
Netti ends with the key: *“so that you have something to hold on to.”* A journalist’s anchor is not a press card, not Palace access, not an envelope from a source. A journalist’s anchor is one thing: @the public
If your story does not make people’s lives clearer, fairer, safer, then you have not served. You have only worked.
Netti Herawati’s question is not for seminar panels. It is for every night before bed, while you reread what you wrote today. @Who was that story for?
If the answer is still “for my boss,” “for connections,” “to stay safe,” then the “Indonesia” you defend is not the Indonesia that needs defending.
#Journalism #NettiHerawati #Press #Media #ServeIndonesia #MediaCriticism
