A Guest Lecture with Tempo’s Edithor-in-Chief: Public Opinion and Freedom of Speech in Indonesia
On the 31st of May 2021, the communication program held Mr. Wahyu Dhyatmika, the Editor-in-Chief of TEMPO as a guest lecturer for the Public Opinion class. The topic of the lecture that Mr. Wahyu talked about was “public opinion and freedom of speech in Indonesia”.
The lecture started with a brief introduction regarding Mr. Wahyu. Afterwards Mr. Wahyu started to talked about the introduction of todays topic. The presentation and lecture of Mr. Wahyu was informative his knowledge in the field of journalism and public opinion was enlightening for the students that attended the lecture. Mr. Wahyu’s talk was not overly complicated as such, the knowledge and information he gave out was easy to digest.
The basic rights related to freedom of expression was one of the topic that Mr. Wahyu talked about. The topic can be divided into three parts, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and lastly freedom to access information. Mr. Wahyu compares how information is now easily obtainable when compared to the past, where information and news is not as easily accessible as it is now. Mr. Wahyu shared that expressing criticism towards the wrongdoing in the government is part of journalism and it should not be shunned.
Watchdog Journalism was once again another topic that Mr. Wahyu talked about and one of the most interesting part of the lecture. Mr. Wahyu expresses the idea that freedom of the press enables journalist to hold the authority accountable and monitor public institution. Through that it is hoped that with this kind of public monitoring that there will be less opportunities for corruption or other forms of violation to occur. Journalist in a sense that Mr. Wahyu believe is the watchdog of the public towards the government and those of importance as they are the people who stakes out through day and night to catch and observe the people of power. Mr. Wahyu also believes that citizens that have a higher quality and accurate information on public issues will have a better choice and can cast their vote responsibly in general election.
Towards the end of the session with Mr. Wahyu, Mr. Wahyu opens up the time for Q&A. a lot of the students were eager to ask their questions to Mr. Wahyu. One of the question that was praised by Mr. Wahyu was “Since TEMPO is a big media company, because of that no matter what they talked about it can sway the public opinion, but what about small media companies or those that are in the rural areas”. Mr. Wahyu gladly talks about the effect of small media companies and those in rural areas, he believe that even smaller media companies holds sway in the citizens mind as they are also expose to it.
Contributor: Evan Jonathan Setyabudi (Comm B2022)
Editor: Dian Sarwono