Remarks of the Indonesian Foreign Minister,
Hassan Wirajuda, at the welcoming dinner
for the Global Inter-Media Dialogue
 

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure this evening to cordially welcome all participants to the Global Inter-Media Dialogue scheduled to be held here tomorrow.

Co-sponsored by the Governments of Norway and Indonesia, this Dialogue among leading media practitioners from different continents, cultures and civilizations, is expected to yield new and deeper insights on the issues confronting the media in today's globalized world.

Let me therefore thank the Government of Norway for graciously co-sponsoring this Dialogue and the eminent media practitioners who have taken the time and trouble to be with us.

While I bid all of you to have an enjoyable time tonight, I must admit to a bit of sadness as I look at the faces of my friends here who happen to be newspaper journalists.

I do feel sad because the word is being spread that newspapers are going the way of the dinosaurs-they are about to be extinct, as the internet slowly kills them one by one.

It is sad enough that newspapers are being killed. In some countries, it is newspapermen who are being killed. Powerful people shoot journalists who do not write nice things about them.

I understand that in the Philippines, journalists have learned to shoot back. They are proving that although the pen is mightier than the sword, it is safer to also have a forty-five.

The fact is that it is never safe to be a journalist. The journalist has to deal with the truth, and truth is a dangerous commodity.

Not too long ago, the press in Indonesia was not free. But in spite of that there were Indonesian journalists who had the courage to tell the truth. Today, in a democratic regime, the Indonesian press is among the freest in this part of the world. The big risks may no longer be there, but it still takes courage to pursue a profession that offers few economic rewards and many frustrations.

In a real sense, this Global Inter-Media Dialogue that we are about to conduct is a tribute to you the brave men and women of the mass media-print and broadcast. We are going to talk about the new challenges that you face, the new demands that you must meet, and also the failings that you need to live down.

We will also talk about the power you have to help change the world for the better-about how much you can do to make the dialogue of civilizations so effective and fruitful that it leads global peace. Such a discussion will be both a tribute and a challenge to your profession.

Having said that, I begin to take heart: perhaps the rumour about the imminent death of the newspaper may be a little premature.

Decades ago, it was predicted that the movies will kill the book publishing business-but today Harry Potter books are still selling like hotcakes, even in the bookstores of Jakarta.

Later, the pundits said television will kill the movies. But Tom Cruise is still very much around.

I am therefore confident that, in spite of the internet, my friends in the newspaper world will be around for many more years, doing what every decent journalist should be doing: comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Right now, however, I want all of you to be comfortable yourselves and enjoy our evening together.

I thank you.

Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Bratislava  -  Slovakia