Trik Lama di Era Baru: Swasensor dalam Jurnalisme Indonesia

Meskipun Indonesia telah memasuki era demokrasi dan kebebasan pers, self-censorship tetap eksis di praktik profesional di banyak jurnalis koran Indonesia. Indonesia memiliki sejarah sensor yang panjang, terutama terkait tekanan dari Pemerintah yang mendorong jurnalis untuk melakukan swasensor terhadap karya mereka. Swasensor memang telah didorong dan dipromosikan melalui nilai-nilai yang diinternalisir dan diinstusionalisasi di banyak publikasi koran Indonesia. Melalui wawancara dengan para jurnalis yang bekerja untuk koran baru dan koran yang dihidupkan kembali di Indonesia, artikel ini akan menjelaskan bagaimana praktik ini bisa berkembang dan bertahan hingga saat ini. Bila di rezim Orde Baru, agen utama dalam tekanan ini adalah Pemerintah, saat ini pemilik Koran menjadi figur kuat yang memaksakan kehendak dan membatasi otonomi jurnalis Indonesia. Even though Indonesia has entered a new era of democracy and press freedom, self-sensorship still exists in the professional practices of many Indonesia newspaper journalists. Indonesia has a long history of cencorship, particularly from the government encouraging journalists to self-ensor their work. As such, self-censorship has been encouraged and promoted through the institutionalised and internalised values of many Indonesian newspaper publications. Through interviews with journalists who work for new and re-established newspaper in Indonesia, this article will explain how the practice has evolved, and how it persist today. While the main agent of pressure during Indonesia’s New Order regime was the government, today the owners of newspapers are powerful figures who exert their influence and hinder the autonomy of Indonesian journalists.