Justice and journalism: Islam and journalistic values in Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract

As the Global War on Terror has prompted new interest in Islam in Southeast Asia, western governments have scrambled to engage with Muslim journalists in Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite this attention, surprisingly little is known about how journalists in these two majority Muslim countries actually think about the work they do. This article draws on a series of semi-structured interviews with elite journalists in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Kuala Lumpur to provide some preliminary explorations of the relationship between Islam and journalism in Southeast Asia. It argues that Muslim journalists in both Indonesia and Malaysia express the universal values of journalism, but do so within an Islamic idiom. It concludes with a discussion of justice as the overarching ideology of journalism in Islam, and a comment on how western diplomats might use the language of Islam to reach out to journalists in these two majority Muslim countries.

Journalism and the Islamic Worldview

“…These studies often emphasized normative issues (Azzi 2011;Hamada 2016) as well as general characteristics of journalism, such as press freedom, media laws, media policy, and media ownership (Amin 2002;Hamada 2004Hamada , 2008Hamdy 2013;Sakr 2006), as well as self-censorship and restrictions in the newsroom (Hamayotsu 2013). Furthermore, recent years have seen a considerable stream of comparative analyses, for example by Hafez (2002), Steele (2011Steele ( , 2013, and Pintak (2014;Pintak and Ginges 2008;Pintak and Setiyono 2011;Pintak and Nazir 2013).…”

Journalism and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia: Five Approaches

“…Most scholarly work on journalism in Indonesia and Malaysia has focused either on individual publications (Steele, 2005;Tarrant, 2008), the overall press system (Hill, 1994;Romano, 2003), or the transition to democracy (Hill and Sen, 2011;Williams and Rich, 2000). Despite some academic debate on broad questions of Islam and communication (Khiabany, 2006;Mowlana, 2003) there are only a handful of Western studies of Islam and the ideology of journalism (Steele, 2011;Pintak and Ginges, 2008). Although there is a growing literature on Islam and democracy in Indonesia (Tomsa, 2010;Hefner, 2000), there has been no serious study of ordinary day-to-day journalism as it is understood and practiced by Muslim professionals.…”

“…My previous research suggests that Muslim journalists in Indonesia and Malaysia often illustrate the fundamental principles of journalism with verses from the Qur'an, or examples from the Hadith (Steele, 2011). For example when asked about the relationship between his faith and his work, former Jawa Pos editor Dhimam Abror began with the Qur'anic obligation to tell others the truth, even if you know only one verse.…”

“…Although editor Heri Nurdi tried to incorporate "cover both sides" into the publication, content analyses consistently show that the magazine had a clear point of view (Chusjairi, 2014: 141). Heri defended Sabili by arguing the Indonesian media as a whole is not "balanced," and that his magazine represented a point of view that would not have otherwise been heard in magazines such as Tempo (Steele, 2011).…”

From fashion to the hereafter: Indonesia’sRepublika, a modern Islamic newspaper

“…When asked to explain the meaning of their work, Muslim journalists express the universal values of journalism, but do so within an Islamic idiom. These universal values include truthfulness, balance, verification and independence from power, but the paraideology is 'justice' (Steele, 2011).…”