A Disinterested Press: Reporting police in a provincial Indonesian newspaper

Abstract

This article constitutes the first analysis of newspaper coverage of police in Indonesia. Analysing 63 articles that appeared in the print version of the Lombok Post between September and October 2011, we were curious to see whether recent media liberalisation meant that the press were now critical of police corruption, brutality and ineffectiveness, or whether there existed a close relationship between police and media such that the press worked as a public relations mouth piece for the police. We also wondered whether the Lombok Post reported about police in a sensationalist way in order to sell more newspapers. What we found were articles that generally failed to criticise police or promote police interests in any enduring way. We also found that articles reported on police in a benign way by simply describing characteristics of the incident, victim, and suspect, and discussing the status of an investigation or trial. What our article suggests is that the Lombok Post is largely disinterested in police and policing, and in a circular way both reflects and sculpts public opinion of police. Media significantly shapes public perceptions of police, and as the most widely read newspaper in Lombok, the Lombok Post has the potential to spark critical debate about policing in the region. Until media across Indonesia recognise the importance for democracy of reporting favourably and critically on police, citizens will remain largely disengaged from police, allowing poor policing practices to persist.

Keywords:

• Police
• Indonesia
• media
• newspaper
• Lombok

1. Introduction

‘An officer with the East Java Police … has died from three gunshot wounds to the chest in what the National Police are saying was a suicide’ (Harsaputra & Perdani, 2013).

Within two days of this article being published in the English language Indonesian newspaper the Jakarta Post it had attracted 19 online comments, mostly discussing the possibility of someone shooting themselves three times in the chest with a rifle – not possible was the verdict. The article itself, though, never questioned the police calling this incident a suicide, or the fact that the local police chief said the reason for the suicide was that the victim was plagued by guilt after stealing US$65 from his neighbour. The death was reported merely as a series of facts. Why was an event, as horrific and suspicious as this one, not taken up by an investigative journalist and interrogated by Indonesia’s foremost English language newspaper? What does the reporting of this event suggest more generally about the media and the press in Indonesia, particularly when it comes to reporting police?

To explore the above question, this article examines specific coverage of police in one provincial newspaper, the Lombok Post, over a period of two months in 2011. The aim of the article is to gain an understanding of how newspaper reportage on police is constructed for public viewing, and to draw inferences as to why journalists report about police in the way they do. We deployed a theoretical sampling approach to collect a particular snapshot of newspaper coverage of police on the basis that this selected ‘slice of life’ enables robust analysis (Patton, 2001, p. 238). Lombok was selected as the fieldsite primarily due to the first author’s existing research connections and knowledge of the area.

Just twelve large media groups control nearly all of Indonesia’s media channels and the Jawa Pos group, which owns the Lombok Post, alone controls 171 print media companies (Nugroho, Putri, & Laksmi, 2012). The Lombok Post is the most widely available newspaper in Lombok, an island neighbouring Bali, with a population around three million and a total area of almost five thousand square kilometres. Davies spent her sabbatical there in 2011 and during September and October bought the hard copy of the newspaper each day from a local kiosk. The Lombok Post, written in Bahasa Indonesia, is on average 14 pages long with the front cover published in colour. The subsequent pages have sections generally on ‘Politics’, ‘Economics’, ‘Newstainment’, ‘Advertisements’, ‘Opinion Pieces’, ‘Law and Crime’, ‘Education’, ‘Sports’ (usually in colour), and a lift-out section call ‘Metropolitan’ (which covers local news in specific regions in Lombok).¹ The back page of the paper has the heading ‘Xpresi’ and covers light-hearted topics such as ‘How to find the best free Wifi Hotspots’, or ‘The best present for your boyfriend.’ A scanned copy of the newspaper is available each day at http://lombokpos.co.id/. Despite our best efforts to contact the Lombok Post, we have been unable to find out circulation numbers, or even when the newspaper first came into being. The issue published on 14 February, 2014, was number 7849; assuming a daily copy is published issue one would have been around 1993.

Here we give information about the methodology. Each day during the research time the newspaper was read through by the first author and any article anywhere in the newspaper that mentioned police (polisi or Polri) in the heading or the first paragraph was cut out. Sixty-three articles were found this way. The first author and a research assistant would then meet each day at lunchtime and together translate the articles into English. Despite both translators being bilingual, and a native speaker of English and Indonesian respectively, translation still proved challenging given the nuances of language. For instance, the word diamankan, from the root word aman (safe) can mean apprehended, restrained, pacified, or restored order. A record of each article was entered into the bibliographic software package Endnote. Once material was entered, the second author read through each entry a number of times identifying themes. Based on the identification of these themes, an initial coding sheet and coding booklet were drafted. Each article was read through twice by the second author, and coded according to the definitions provided in the coding sheet and coding booklet, a step repeated for each of the 63 articles. Thematic content analysis was used to then examine how articles discussed the key themes of police role; police performance; police–public relationships; and police misconduct. Here we define what each of these themes mean. Police role involved any commentary in the newspaper of the daily activities of police officers. Police performance covered any coverage of how well or how poorly a given officer performed his or her role. Police–public relationships indicated any comment made on how the police interacted with local citizens. Finally, police misconduct represented instances where police officers’ performance was presented as being wrongful.

The aim of the article is to show how the Lombok Post newspaper frames police in Indonesia. Further studies need to be conducted to show how such coverage of police shapes public perceptions of police. When further research is undertaken knowledge of policing in Indonesia will increase and comparision with international data can be undertaken to develop particular models of coverage of police in the Indoneisan media.

In order to explore how police are reported on in the Lombok Post this article is divided into four sections. The first section analyses the power of media to shape public opinion of police. The second section gives an overview of media in Indonesia, while the third section explores police in Indonesia. The fourth section discusses the four key themes that arose during analysis of the articles before concluding by calling for citizens to demand in-depth and critical media coverage of policing in Indonesia both as a means of increasing police legitimacy through improving public support and as a way of making the police accountable to the public.

2. Sculpting Opinion of Police

Media play a crucial role in disseminating information about, and shaping public opinion of, police. Indeed, media ‘influences whether citizens view the police as operating under either a conflict or consensus model. In turn, the public responds in various ways to either support or deny police legitimacy’ (Stewart, 2013, p. 335). Police legitimacy is important because it is a fundamental requirement of democratic society (Tyler, 1990). In Western media environments the majority of coverage of police is presented in a favourable manner, positively influencing public perceptions of police (Reiner, 2000), although the reporting of sensationalised high profile incidents can negatively impact public perceptions of police (Chermak, McGarrell, & Gruenewald, 2006). While favourable reporting of police is imperative to a functioning democracy, the symbiotic relationship that develops between the media and police can work in the interests of police over and above citizens, indeed to the point that the media employ various strategies of symbolic communication to legitimise police violence (Hirschfield & Simon, 2010).

We see the power of media to sculpt a positive image of police in the case of Chile where Bonner (2013) shows how the image of police changed rapidly from negative to positive primarily due, not to police reform, but to an effective communications strategy. To achieve this positive public image, Chile’s police were mandated to start talking to citizens, undergo public relations training, and attend seminars with journalists. Media and police worked together to promote a positive image of police and this in turn increased public support for police. While Bonner (2013) recognises the value of this approach, she argues that rather than reflect increased accountability or successful democratic reform, the lack of criticism of police may serve to undermine Chile’s democracy which, like all democracies, requires public criticism of state institutions.

In contrast to the success of the approach in Chile, police legitimacy in South Africa has been hindered by continued lack of public support for the institution, something that is exacerbated by a lack of positive media coverage of police (Stewart, 2013). Apartheid era police had a reputation of being coercive, oppressive, and violent. As such, the new South African government strove to change the image of police to one of trust, respect, and cooperation. However, the South African newspaper media used a conflict frame to convey messages about the police and in so doing media images of police reduced the likelihood of police–community cooperative behaviour (Stewart, 2013). In these two examples we see the power of media to sculpt public opinion of police, and also the danger of having a media that is uncritical of police. How Indonesia’s media frame police is culturally and historically contextual, as the next section shows.

3. Media in Indonesia

It is difficult for Indonesian journalists to shake off the fear that for decades has dictated the way journalists look at contentious issues like human rights, corruption and dictatorship. Journalists would write about these issues hardly mentioning the words human rights, corruption or dictatorship (Hardjono, 1998).

Indonesia’s entry into democracy, signalled by the forced resignation of authoritarian leader General Suharto in 1998, brought forth media freedom. For the first time since Suharto assumed the presidency in a 1966 coup, mass media could report on contentious issues without tangible fear of imprisonment. During Suharto’s reign, Indonesian media was heavily censored, with permissible content only that which promoted the interests of the regime. If a media outlet dared print anti-government material, their publishing licence would likely be removed as a result (Harsono, 2002). But from 1999 onward, formally banned media sources, such as Tempo, Detik and Editor, were reissued publishing licences (Harsono, 2002). Not only did protesting become a legitimate pastime in Indonesia, but media outlets found that reporting on protests was permitted and that they could report more openly on a range of previously taboo issues (Kakiailatu, 2007; Sen & Hill, 2000; Tapsell, 2012a, b). With the passing in 1999 of the Liberal Press Law (LPL), and the termination of the role of the censoring Ministry of Information, Indonesia’s media became less regulated. As a consequence of this freedom, the number of newspapers, national television stations, and journalists in Indonesia increased, as did the growth in research examining Indonesian media (Harsono, 2011; Lee & Maslog, 2005; Lee, Maslog, & Kim, 2006; Maslog, Lee, & Kim, 2007; Pintak & Setiyono, 2011; Sen & Hill, 2010). But as Winters shows, while Indonesia’s media is now largely free from muscular intimidation from the state, it is thoroughly corporate and dominated by a small number of super-powerful oligarchs (Winters, 2013, p. 25). This corporatisation of the media explains in part why Indonesia’s press still lacks critical engagement with contentious issues, and restricts press freedom (Tapsell, 2012a, b). As Haryanto notes, at best newspapers ignore their owner’s business, at worst newspapers become their owner’s personal newsletters (2010). Sadly no study has yet been conducted on newspaper, or media in general, coverage of policing during the New Order period. We look forward to someone taking on such a project to enable a fruitful comparison with the current article.

A further reason for the lack of newspaper criticality can be found in the reporting style of journalists. A number of studies have found that Indonesian journalists practice what is perhaps euphemistically referred to as ‘peace journalism’ when covering domestic conflicts (Lee & Maslog, 2005; Lee, Maslog, & Kim, 2006; Maslog et al., 2007). Peace journalism, according to one definition, is a ‘broader, fairer and more accurate way of framing stories, drawing on the insights of conflict analysis and transformation’ (Lee, Maslog, & Kim, 2006, p. 500). This approach contrasts with war journalism where embedded reporters have a vested interest in promoting nationalistic interests. Peace journalism adopts a variety of approaches to achieve broader, fairer, coverage of conflict. For example, peace journalism requires reporting on the invisible effects of war (emotional trauma, damage to society and culture); reporting causes and consequences of the conflict; multiparty orientation (giving voices to many parties involved in conflict); avoiding victimising and demonising language; and being objective and moderate, and avoiding emotive words (Lee & Maslog, 2005). If we extend this argument it is possible to suggest that Indonesian journalists take a neutral approach to reporting contentious social issues, such as police brutality or police corruption and criminal activity. Where does this non-confrontational approach come from?

As Hardjono notes in the quote at the start of this section, the legacy of the past, and the penalties for critical reporting, shape contemporary Indonesian journalism. She further notes that even when she does write critical things, they do not get published in Indonesia (Hardjono, 1998). For Hardjono, years of living in a totalitarian state continue to haunt her journalistic approach, even in Indonesia’s reformation period. Indeed, as Sen and Hill astutely note, ‘There can be no simple connection between the erosion of government censorship, the opening up of the media and the establishment of a pluralist democracy as understood in the West’ (2010, p. 2). It is no surprise, then, that despite being a newly freed institution, the historical apparatus surrounding Indonesian media makes it difficult for journalists to play the role of ‘watchdog,’ where the media ‘watch’ the government and other state institutions to prevent wrongdoing (Pintak & Setiyono, 2011; Tapsell 2012 a,b). Moreover, Indonesian journalists experience significant owner interference in the crafting of their stories (Darudoyo, 2009) and admit to a struggle with ethics as they try to perform their job as the Fourth Estate while ensuring that they can continue to be permitted to operate in Indonesia (Harsono, 2002; Pintak & Setiyono, 2011).

As part of continued self-censorship, journalists, and the press in general, have a tendency to trivialise and sensationalise serious issues in Indonesia, a prime case being corruption (Kramer, 2013). Corruption garners substantial current Indonesian media attention (Sen & Hill, 2010). In stark contrast to limited media reporting on corruption prior to 1998, corruption has been a stalwart issue for the press in the Reformation era, dominating both print and television media. But coverage of corruption has a clear tendency towards a ‘politics-as-entertainment’ depiction of corruption cases, as evidenced by the inclination towards ‘scandalising’ the issue (Romano, 2013). The media trivialisation of key political issues ultimately discourages meaningful public debate and engagement with the anticorruption movement. We can make the same assertions about police; the trivialisation of policing issues means that the press play no role in exhorting people to demand more from their police service.

Corruption also plays a role in determining which stories get covered in the media and how, ultimately serving as a factor limiting the critical role of journalists. It is arguably difficult for Indonesian journalists to perform the role of watchdog if they themselves are involved in receiving, or paying, bribes. As Harsono reveals, a number of journalists have admitted to taking envelopes full of money as bribery for either not reporting a case, or for putting a positive spin on a story (2000, 2002). Those in power in the media world still predominately consist of individuals who were journalists prior to the introduction of media freedom in Indonesia. Apart from a few brave journalists, this history shapes what journalists report, and how they report it, and there is a struggle with a new form of press freedom and the new concept of media as watchdog. In addition, corruption may substitute for the former dictatorship; instead of being threatened with punishment, journalists may be threatened with no pay if their reporting style is too contentious.

Some commentators have noted that religion plays a role in Indonesia’s press taking a relatively uncritical stance towards social issues (Harsono, 2011; Pintak & Setiyono, 2011; Steele, 2013). As the majority of Indonesian journalists are Muslim, Steele (2013) suggests that Islamic values may discourage journalists from divulging negative information about individuals via the media. While studies looking at celebrity gossip, and the infatuation of Indonesians with sensational stories contest this finding somewhat (Coutas, 2006; Hobart & Fox, 2008), religious values strongly shape Indonesia and may at times discourage negative emotive reporting by journalists. But emotive reporting can be a positive force when it critiques those found guilty of inappropriate behaviours, such as police involved in corruption. As can be seen, significant historical and cultural factors shape the practices of Indonesia’s press, including journalists.

4. Police in Indonesia

Indonesia’s national police force is commonly referred to as Polri, an acronym from Kepolisian Negara Republic Indonesia (The National Police of the Republic of Indonesia). In English, the police are often referred to as the INP (Indonesia’s National Police). Despite rhetorical moves towards sensitive policing discourse, Polri continues to operate a paramilitary style of policing (Meliala, 2001a; Villaveces-Izquierdo, 2010), a style that negatively impacts public perceptions of police and reduces police legitimacy (Waddington, 1999). Without legitimacy, police struggle to perform even the most basic of functions. For Polri, low levels of legitimacy combine with endemic corruption to further reduce police capacity and performance (Davis, Triwahyuono, & Alexander, 2009; Olken & Barron, 2009; Stasch, 2001; Villaveces-Izquierdo, 2010). Polri also continues to be plagued by a plethora of issues, including blatant human rights abuses, low levels of training, and high levels of inefficiency.

Indonesian police officers are relatively well paid, especially in comparison to other government employees. In fact, over ninety per cent of Polri’s budget is spent on salaries, leaving very little money for other essential items of police work, including operational costs (Jansen, 2008). Indeed, police often justify acts of corruption on the grounds that they need to get money from somewhere if they are going to put petrol in their patrol cars. Despite continuing volatile military–police relations (Crouch, 2010; Malley, 2003), in post-Suharto era Indonesia there are examples of relations between security sectors being amicable with respective roles clearly defined and police being key actors in enforcing on-the-ground security (Jansen, 2008).

Resources have been channelled into police reform since its separation from the military in 1999. Extra funding has seen a vast increase in officer numbers. In the early 1980s, the ratio was one officer for every 1200 citizens (Jansen, 2008). This ratio has improved markedly and Indonesia now boasts the world’s fifth largest force, with strength of around 400,000 personnel. This number gives a current police–population ratio of 1:600, which is approaching the United Nations ideal of 1:500 (International Crisis Group, 2012). Women make up just a handful of this number though at 3.7 per cent, and even then women are mostly tasked with making tea and reading traffic reports on the news (Davies, Meliala, & Buttle, 2013a; Davies & Hardjono 2015). Police reform, much of it spearheaded and funded by donor nations, notably the US and Australia, has improved capability in transnational crime. Such reform, however, goes largely unnoticed by the general public who still have predominantly negative views of the police (Davies, Buttle, & Meliala, 2014). A recent Polri performance survey indicated that 61.3 per cent of public respondents were not satisfied with the police (Kepala Kepolsian Negara Republik Indonesia, 2012). Such negative views are no surprise after reading reports on police brutality (International Crisis Group, 2001, 2012) and corruption (Buttle, Davies, & Meliala, 2014; Martini, 2012).

Despite the size of Indonesia’s police force, this institution has attracted little in the way of scholarly research published in either English or Bahasa Indonesia (Bhakti, 2004; Buttle, Davies, & Meliala, 2014; Dajoh & Ismail, 1997; Davies et al., 2013a, 2013b; Djamin, 1999; International Crisis Group, 2001, 2004, 2012; Markas Besar Kepolisian Republik Indonesia, 1999; Meliala, 2001a, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b; Prasetyo et al., 2005; Rahmawati & Azca, 2006; Stasch, 2001; Villaveces-Izquierdo, 2010). While there is some material addressing broader security issues within Indonesia, even this material sheds limited light on policing (Jansen, 2008; Kingsley, 2010; Kristiansen & Trijono, 2005). This lack of scholarly engagement with police extends to journalism and while on average the Lombok Post newspaper was publishing one article per day that mentioned police, there was little engagement beyond a factual reporting of events. While reasons were explored above for why journalists fail to critically report on police, another reason is the perceived irrelevance of the police in Indonesia by both citizens and the media. Indeed, in talking with people in Lombok it became clear that there is limited understanding of the role of police and a great reluctance to get police involved in any social matter (Davies, Meliala, & Buttle, 2014). As one case in point, one particular TV morning chat show regularly features family members of missing people. The grieving mother will make a plea for anyone with knowledge about her missing child to come forward. The mother holds a placard with a photo of her child and a contact phone number. Viewers with information are encouraged to contact the mother directly; at no time are the police mentioned as possible facilitators.

5. Reporting Police

It takes enormous courage to try to print information you know the authorities [in Indonesia] will not like (Hardjono, 1998).

While the Lombok Post on average publishes one article per day that mentions police, the impression readers get is that police are largely irrelevant to society and play very little role other than (unsuccessfully) investigating crime. Articles that mention police are generally neutrally presented and provide minimal information about police. Below we examine how the Lombok Post reports on police in more detail by specifically focusing on newspaper coverage on the key themes of police role; police performance; police-public relationships; and police misconduct.

5.1. Reporting police role

Of 63 articles found to mention police in the title or first paragraph during our collection period, 56 articles mentioned police specifically in the context of criminal investigation. Only seven articles published during the allocated research time focused on police activities unrelated to crime, focusing on events such as a senior officer retiring or the launch on a biography by the Police Chief.² Table 1 reveals the type and frequency of criminal offences discussed in relation to police.

Table 1 Distribution of offence

Type of Offence	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Burglary	5	7.9
Corruption (police and citizen)	8	12.7
Driving related offence	6	9.5
Homicide	2	3.2
Physical assault	3	4.8
Sexual assault	0	0.0
Theft	15	23.8
‘Other offence’	17	27.0
Crime not relevant	7	11.1
Total	63	100.0

The role of police in investigating cases of theft and burglary thus accounted for almost 32 per cent of the articles mentioning police in the Lombok Post during our data collection period. The mention of police involved in investigating crime was largely framed neutrally: ‘Police are investigating the case of a stolen gas canister’ (Lombok Post, 2011a); ‘Police in east Lombok apprehended three gamblers’ (Lombok Post, 2011b). We see here parallels with studies of newspaper coverage of police globally where police are presented in news media primarily in terms of the role they play in criminal investigations and arrest, although in places such as the US such coverage tends to emphasize the effectiveness of the criminal justice system (Chermak, Scheer, & Wilson, 2014). Given the centrality of police involvement in crime investigation in the Lombok Post, it is little wonder that police performance emerged as the second key theme in our analysis.

5.2. Reporting Performance

While media in other countries may impart nuance into their story to suggest either sympathy for the police, or sympathy for the offender (Bonner, 2013; Hirschfield & Simon, 2010; Stewart, 2013), the Lombok Post is generally neutral in its coverage of police. Of the 56 articles that specifically mention police performance, 43 describe police performance in a neutral manner. We see examples of this neutrality in factual sentences such as ‘During the operation police confiscated a motorbike’ (Lombok Post, 2011c) and in reporting events:

Today the police confiscated the kaki lima (small wooden pushcarts from which snacks are sold) from a number of petty traders (pedangan). These actions were undertaken after a message from the Mayor stating that he wants to implement a policy called Ciptakan Kenyamanan dan Keindahan (Creating Comfort and Beauty). Kaki lima are seen as obstacles to this objective and the petty traders will undergo training about this initiative (Lombok Post, 2011d).

Interestingly, the fact that petty traders had their livelihoods confiscated, leaving them with no source of income in a society without a social security system, evoked no emotive response from the newspaper. Given the previous discussion of self-censorship among journalists and media corporations, and general public apathy toward police, it may be no surprise that the vast majority of articles reported police performance in a neutral way.

In our sample, 13 articles specifically noted negative police performance, with comments made such as police being too slow in investigating crime, police not responding to citizen requests for assistance, police giving licences to underage drivers, police being corrupt, police not doing anything useful for society, police using violence indiscriminately, and police having an insufficient budget to perform properly.

Seven articles specifically mentioned the need for police performance to improve. For instance, an article noted that an increasing number of burglaries in Lombok is putting police performance under the spotlight (Lombok Post, 2011e). The article went on to quote a member of the House of Representatives stating that ‘policing is not just a sign on the door of an institution; policing is about the performance.’ The member went on to insinuate that the police are too slow in investigating crime. The Head of the Regional Police stated in the same article that there should be an improvement in police performance in order to uncover the perpetrators of burglaries. The Head of the Regional Police was also quoted as noting that burglars can be automatically shot at the scene of the crime under three conditions: (1) the burglar uses violence against the police; (2) the burglar threatens the police; (3); the burglar is a danger to others (Lombok Post, 2011f).

A number of articles focused on the need for police performance to improve, with topics such as: police are taking on-board public criticism and are changing their approach to policing; police are improving their strategy with regards to solving burglaries; police are following government recommendations; and police are responding to public complaints. In addition, a number of newspaper articles noted that police were forming special teams to combat different social ails (e.g. solving burglaries); that police were creating new positions to enable them to effectively deal with crime; that there were ongoing efforts to increase police–society partnerships; that police were seeking greater funding to ensure better service; and that police were attempting to improve their public image.

Twenty-three articles in our sample noted police as not having solved a crime (see Table 2). If we include only articles that focused on police role in investigating a crime, 55 per cent of these articles described the police as having not solved a crime. Police success tended to be reported matter-of-factly with the assumption that the suspect was guilty regardless of whether a trial verdict had been announced: ‘Police have arrested a thief and receiver of stolen goods’ (Lombok Post, 2011g).

Table 2 Distribution of discussion of police efficacy

Status of police efficacy	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Police described as not solving a crime	23	36.5
Police described as solving a crime	19	30.2
Police efficacy not relevant	21	33.3
Total	63	100.0

Given the limited success of police solving crime – 52.4 per cent of reported crimes across Indonesia were solved in 2011 (Kepala Kepolsian Negara Republik Indonesia, 2012) – it is not surprising that the Lombok Post had little tangible evidence to affirm police were taking seriously the need to improve performance. Even when reporting on police good deeds, reporting continued to lack detail. For instance, seven articles mentioned that police actions restored order to the community and protected security (menjaga keamanan) (e.g. Lombok Post, 2011g) but no further details beyond reporting this as an assumed fact were given.

While given the cultural and historical context of Indonesian media, and the poor performance of the police, it is understandable that newspaper coverage of police tends to be neutral or negative. In order to improve public support for police, though, it is important for media to give attention to the good work that Indonesian police do. During Davies’ fieldwork in Lombok numerous occasions of police good deeds were noted. Police in Lombok have a good working relationship with local schools and police officers, including a female Police Captain, visit schools on a regular basis to encourage children to contact them if they are in trouble. Some officers also go out of their way to help people cross busy roads and to hail public transport. This is not to undermine the serious and consistent misuse of police power that occurs in Lombok, as elsewhere in Indonesia; ironically, Davies’ husband was required to pay bribes to police on a number of occasions.

Studies based in the West find that media representations of crime and the police have considerable influence over citizen perspectives of police (Eschholz, Chiricos, & Gertz, 2003). With so little in the way of positive media depictions of police within the Indonesian media, even when good deeds do happen, the public interpret this lack of positive media coverage as the police failing to undertake any praiseworthy service. Public confidence in police is essential to effective policing (Alpert, Dunham, & Piquero, 1998) and as the following section shows police-public relationships need strengthening and the media can play a crucial role in bringing this about.

5.3. Reporting police–public relationships

Twenty-eight articles in our sample specifically mentioned the relationship between police and the public. Of these articles, just over half described the relationship neutrally, while the remaining articles portrayed the relationship negatively. None of the articles framed the relationship between police and the public as positive, although five articles mentioned police attempts to improve their relationship with the public through such measures as: punishing officers for unlawful behaviour; increasing patrols; spending time at prayer with civilians; receiving criticism; and responding to tip-offs about crime from members of society.

One detailed example of police attempts to improve their image, and thus enhance their relationship with the public, is seen in the following article. On 13 October, it was reported that the Lombok Police Chief would be the first in Indonesia to implement the policy of Bhabinkamtibmas, a policy to provide every village with its own police officer (Lombok Post, 2011h). The Police Chief hoped that this policy would result in good policing service for society and that the stationed police officer would routinely visit people’s houses to inform them of safety conditions and remind them of their duty to ensure the orderliness of society. The reason given for implementing this policy was that every village now needs its own police officer given that the number of criminals is increasing. The Police Chief was further quoted as saying that, ‘The strategy will be useful to improve police image.’ The article concluded by noting that:

Implementing good police service is one of the police’s priority obligations to society. When police ignore (cuek) society, the impact on the image of police is bad. On the contrary, if police keep smiling and being friendly, and they develop a good partnership with society, the police image will improve (Lombok Post, 2011h).

The sentiments recounted here reinforce Western-based research that identifies the importance of police employing the principles of procedural justice, that is police being polite, friendly and sensitive to the needs of the community (Murphy & Cherney, 2012; Tyler, 2011). Research has shown that in areas where police employ procedural justice, public support for police increases. Increasing public support for police is particularly important as public support is the primary antecedent of effective policing (Tyler, 1990). Sentiments in the above articles reflect a willingness of police to want to improve their public image and shows media ability to report such views, but coverage of the tangible outcomes of such rhetorical efforts is needed to improve public perceptions of police.

5.4. Reporting police misconduct

The fourth main theme to emerge from our analysis involved coverage of police misconduct. Given that Indonesia’s police force is one of the world’s most corrupt and brutal (Martini, 2012), it is interesting that police corruption was reported in only six articles. Four of these articles made no judgement on the act of police corruption, although the article below encouraged citizens to be wary of police:

Today a suspected rogue (oknum) police officer was sent a police summons (surat panggilan). Information obtained from witnesses said that the rogue officer was involved in illegally confiscating motorbikes. The rogue officer would declare that a bike’s registration was invalid and that the vehicle ID did not match the registration and licence plate. The officer would then confiscate the bike. The victim did not mind that his motorbike was taken by the perpetrator. The Police Chief commented that police officers are not allowed to be involved in repossession (cabut) cases. The Police Chief has warned citizens not to trust people they do not know, even if they say they are from the repossession office. The Police Chief said that ‘Citizens are expected to be vigilant and not get duped (terkecaw) by someone who has a large body, or looks to be official, even if they are the police. When there is suspicion, people should report the matter to the police’ (Lombok Post, 2011i).

There was no critique in the article about the inconsistent message expressed by the Police Chief where he first exhorted citizens to be suspicious of people they do not know, including police, and then encouraged citizens to contact police if they sensed anything suspicious. Moreover, no comment was made at the mention that the victim did not mind his motorbike being unlawfully seized.

Only two articles in our sample made a moral judgement about police corruption and offered suggestions to curb police corruption by stating that additional money should be allocated to the police force and that corrupt police officers should be punished. This latter comment suggests that police officers are not routinely punished for corrupt behaviour. A lack of critical reporting of police corruption shows both a general acceptance of corruption as a fact of life, and also the use of self-censorship by journalists and editors.

Six articles in our sample mentioned police use of force. Two of these articles mentioned use of force in a general sense, while four mentioned specific cases. Mention of use of force was presented neutrally. For instance, one article noted that police had to pacify the offender (Lombok Post, 2011b). Another article stated that police fired warning shots (tembakan peringatan) into a crowd of students who were quarrelling (bentrok) with journalists (Lombok Post, 2011f, 2011j). Just one article of the six mentioned police use of excessive force, and even this mention was on a general level rather than referring to a specific instance. The fact that just one article out of 63 mentioned excessive use of police force contradicts the occurrence of such misconduct; available literature indicates that police in Indonesia frequently use excessive force (Davis et al., 2009; Stasch, 2001). The disjuncture between academic research and media coverage of police use of force suggests that journalists and editors are under pressure from police and government to refrain from reporting police misconduct and that self-censorship takes place. It is also possible that journalists receive incentives for not reporting excessive use of force. Journalists may also find it hard to get testimony from people about police abuse because of fears of police reprisals.

6. Conclusion

The end of the twentieth century was a time of transition for Indonesia. Democratic elections took place for the first time and the Liberal Press Law was passed. This new era was thus full of promise for a free media; no longer would news magazines, for instance, be arbitrarily banned, or journalists and commentators imprisoned for expressing views contrary to government ideology. It was at this precise historical juncture that Indonesia’s police service was forcibly separated from its domineering older brother, the military, a divorce signed into law in 1999. Combined with a newly freed press, an independent police service served to signal the emergence of a democratic Indonesia. This article has sought to analyse how these newly reconstituted entities, the police and the media, relate to each other, and in particular how the media in Indonesia report on police. While our research has focused on a provincial newspaper over a short period of time, we suspect that our findings are applicable to a wider analysis of media in Indonesia, and we intend to undertake further research to substantiate this claim.

Our research, along with other documented evidence, allows for certain inferences to be drawn regarding why the Lombok Post reports in a largely disinterested manner on the Indonesian police. The tendency toward reporting the bare minimum of facts regarding deviant police behaviour may attest to journalists and newspapers self-censoring. Indeed, there are valid reasons for journalists, in particular, to avoid writing about the police in an overtly critical manner given that it is not unknown for journalists to be targets of police violence (Media Activism, 2013). Furthermore, a lack of interest by journalists and the public regarding policing mean that critical reporting is not a high priority for media outlets. This format of reporting police has broad implications for Indonesia. By not engaging critically with police, newspapers trivialise the role of police and ultimately discourage meaningful public debate and engagement about and with police. Without public support, policing in Indonesia will continue to be ineffective and not held to account; a robust media is a key mechanism for compelling and inspiring policing excellence.

Findings from this study are significant in that they suggest the lack of an overarching symbiotic relationship between police and media in Lombok. Police in the US, for instance, invest large sums of money in shaping their relationship with the media so that it works to their advantage and while the police cannot always control the message, the prevailing view is that a symbiotic relationship exists between media and police (Chermak et al., 2014). Moreover, bureaucratic restraints of news production mean that media in the US and elsewhere are reliant on personal relationships with police (Chermak et al., 2014). While this is no doubt the case to an extent in Indonesia, our examination of the Lombok Post showed no clear consistent bias toward the police. Rather it showed a largely disinterested approach to covering matters pertaining to policing. Indonesia will continue to get the police service that it tolerates; critical (positive and negative) coverage of policing in Indonesia, particularly where police brutality is concerned, or where police fail to investigate sexual crime, will incite general demands for an ethical police service, the lynchpin of a successful and robust democratic nation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank AUT University, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the University of Indonesia for their generous funding of this project. The first author would like to thank RY for assistance with all 63 article translations, and Ross Tapsell for feedback, and a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at the University of Cambridge that provided space for writing the article. Furthermore, we would like to thank Professor Adrianus Meliala for his enduring support and encouragement.

Notes

1. The terms in Indoneisan are respectively: Politika, Ekonomi Bisnis, Newstainment, Iklan Codek, Opini, Hukum dan Kriminal, Pendidikan, Olah Raga and Metropolis.

2. It might be worth mentioning here that just one article in our sample discussed the relationship between the Indonesian Armed Forces and the police. This lack of reporting may suggest that the police and military now have significantly different roles and are independent of each other, or/and it may indicate the inability of the Armed Forces and police to cooperate in Lombok, something which they do manage to do successfully elsewhere in Indonesia (Jansen, 2008). But as our data collection phase is limited more research is needed.