Media-elite interactions in post-authoritarian Indonesia

Chapter three focus on the media’s interests. Its first part shows how Kompas,
Media Indonesia, and Republika commented on Buloggate, and explains their
respective stances in the scandal by disentangling their vested interests. The second
part examines Aryantigate and the underlying interests of four weekly magazines in
covering the scandal. This chapter demonstrates and explains the different positions
of particular media organisations on Buloggate and Aryantigate. The analysis of
editorial commentary during Buloggate establishes that Media Indonesia was critical
while maintaining an aura of neutrality, that Kompas showed sympathy for Wahid,
and that Republika was explicitly opposed to Wahid. The example of Aryantigate
illustrates that the media adopt principles of press freedom and journalistic ethics to
justify their decision on whether to publish a scandal or not. Although the editors of
the magazines that published the Aryantigate story explicitly or implicitly admitted
that profit-making played a role, none of them admitted that other factors like
ownership or ideology might have influenced their respective coverage of the
scandal. However, in the case of Aryantigate, the media’s opportunities to promote
their interests were limited by the fact that there was not much interest in the case
and thus not enough supply of information to keep the scandal in the headlines.
Overall, this chapter establishes that a particular media organisation’s interest in
Buloggate and Aryantigate, and how the scandal was covered, depended on
ownership, professional interests, ideology, personal affiliation or a combination
thereof.
Chapter four argues that the Bank Century scandal was an intra-elite power
struggle over key positions and access to political resources, and analyses how those
involved in the scandal and its investigation both skilfully utilized the media to
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