Opini Wartawan Terhadap Kebebasan Pers (Studi Kasus Aliansi Jurnalis Lndependen dan Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia Cabang Sumatera Utara di Kota Medan)

Abstract

Since the era of reformation, the Indonesian press which was shut up during the repressive New Order administration has entered a free era which had been dreamed by the press in Indonesia. Yet, the freedom they get turns into a new problem resulted from the misunderstanding created by the journalists or some of the journalists themselves. Many opinions come up. The question is what kind of freedom which is appropriate for the press in Indonesia. This study looks at the freedom of press in Indonesia especially that in Sumatera Utara. The research method used is a case study technique with qualitative approach. The respondents are 52 journalists associated in the Independence Journalists Alliance (AJI) and the members of the Indonesian Journalist Association (PWI) Sumatera Utara Branch in Medan who were interviewed to learn what their opinions are, especially, about the freedom of press in Sumatera Utara. The primary data obtained through interviews are supported with the secondary data collected through library research. The result of the study reveals that most of the 52 journalists of AJI Medan and PWI Sumatera Utara Branch judge that the freedom of press is a freedom that guarantees journalists to bring up their opinion and fact as well as their safety, security and comfort inn doing their journalistic activities that they can more freely tell the society about all the important things to know without constraint and intervention from the outsiders especially the stakeholder of the newspaper company itself. Since the freedom of press is a freedom whose essence is to provide the public with factual information, and the information belongs to the public, the respondents request that the press be given a freedom to look for and publicize the information.