Anwar Ibrahim: Govt Must Guarantee Media Freedom

Jakarta, Jan 10 (ANTARA) - Former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said that the government should guarantee media freedom if it is serious in establishing democracy in the country. "If the government cannot pave the way for media freedom or the freedom of speech, then the democracy cannot be significantly implemented," said Anwar durring the Forum of Chief Editors in Jakarta on Thursday evening. According to him, the media freedom could only be implemented truly if the government realizes that there is a limit authority to forbid the freedom of the media. He noted that the media freedom is to give the press a space to speech truly and to remove suppression to the media. "So our responsibility to the media is to give the widest opportunity for the press to deliver the truth without suppression of any parties," he said. He said that currently there are still several media publications that are controlled by a certain party such as the government or wealthy people. The truly free media will not side with an institution but report the truth of an event, said Anwar. "So the first thing that should be done is to let the media become free. Then, the second thing is to see how far the freedom of the media is," Anwar added. He noted that Indonesia has had the media freedom better than Malaysia. Anwar said that Indonesia should keep the spirit of the media freedom. "The most important thing is the media should not only represent any political party or wealthy people, but also to give sufficient space for the aspirations and concerns of the people," said Anwar. The Forum, which was established on July 18, 2012, discussed several media issues and the freedom of the press as well as democracy. The forum invited a number of sources which were well-informed of democracy and press freedom both from home and from overseas.