It went unnoticed by most of the media, the 12th Anniversary of AJI or the Independent Journalists Alliance yesterday.

As reported by Nila in my company’s blog Maverick Indonesia ( Happy 12th Anniversary to Aliansi Jurnalis Independen), the organization will be marking the occasion with discussions on “Media and Intolerance” (Aug 7), How the private sector and the media can help each other (Aug 10), screening a movie on AJI’s history and presenting three awards – two to people who have help progress journalism and one to a person or institution who has been an Enemy to Press Freedom (Aug 11).

The latter award should provide good reading if nothing else.

But AJI has little to celebrate really. Set up as a counterweight to the Suharto controlled PWI, AJI was once the rallying point for Indonesian journalists with worthwhile causes such as Freedom of the Press and a more transparent and accountable government.

Since Suharto’s fall, however, the journalism fraternity, bereft of a common enemy, has come apart at the seams. Other journalistic bodies sprang up, petty and tribal politics took over and now there is no one organization that commands the respect of the majority of journalists.

Journalism has also taken a toll. With publications popping up like mushrooms in Reformasi Indonesia (I think the estimated amount is 800 plus titles) the Press found themselves locked in a super competitive situation with each other, both for circulation and expertise. The result is that the editors and reporters in many publications, even the larger and most respectable ones, who know little about journalism.

This is why journalism in this country is at best a hit-or-miss prospect. You have journalists who are capable of the silliest mistakes, like confusing dinner for lunch (it happened to us when we celebrated our 3rd anniversary) and those who would not let any fact get in the way of a good story ( I was robbed once and all that happened was that I had a glimpse of the robbers before they made off with my car. The next day the story was escalated to a robbery at knife-point for my maid and gunpoint for me).

There is little sign that the media will get better. Most of the editors would not brook criticism even when is evident that they know not what they are doing. Others have ossified in their posts and too comfortable in the old ways. The Jakarta Post, for instance, has resorted to conscripting someone with an advertising and business background to be its CEO so that change will come to the paper.

Yet for all the Press’s weaknesses there is a saving grace about journalism in Indonesia. It is free and where there is freedom there is the hope that humanity will discover its best and excel at what it does.

The media, as it is, is likely to experience a shakedown as the laws of market selection get rid of the less viable media houses. It will take a few years but Indonesia will get there, eventually. In the meantime, everyone just has to be extra careful and skillful in dealing with the media.