Indonesian Journalists' Ethical Dilemmas: Self Evaluation of Indonesian Journalism Codes of Ethics

This thesis analyzes the practice of the profession of television journalism in Indonesia and whether the fundamental codes of ethics as standards of journalism were consistently practiced in Indonesia's market-driven media sector. This thesis draws on the research from a thesis about "Press Ethics and Practice of Journalism in Turkey: A Case Study on Turkish Journalists' Self Evaluation of Their Codes of Practice." (Hilal, 2006). According to Hilal, while media owners, executives or stockholders have consistently used the press as an instrument in the furtherance of their interests; this issue has been aggravated by the recent concentration in media proprietorship. This thesis addresses the historical formation of the Journalism Code of Ethics in Indonesia, practices prior to and after freedom of press happened in 1999 preceding concentrating on the implementation of 11 principles of the Journalism Code of Ethics in Indonesian news media. It also addresses the recent development such as media, politics and PEMILU (presidential election). The fundamental issue in media morals is the ethical quality of those in the area and the compatibility of journalism and ethics. (Hilal, 2006). This thesis's objective was to learn if Indonesian TV journalists and Newsmakers were using the code of ethics as guidance, will they use it again in the future, and will they recommend its use to their peers; how effective was the 11 principles of the Journalism Code of Ethics to encounter ethical dilemmas with technology. The study finds while 92% of the respondents have knowledge of the Indonesian Journalism Code of Ethics, and 36% of the respondents impacted by a severe conflict/ ethical dilemma, the majority of the respondents, 26% are in doubt that it was helpful and 33% of them though that the Indonesian Journalism Code of Ethics was really helpful to help them to solve their ethical dilemma. 30% of the respondents also in doubt that they would promote the Indonesian Journalism Code of Ethics to their peers nor they would use it in the future because it was not very effective when the dilemma is too new, too complex or too personal. Keywords: Indonesian TV journalists, producers, executives, management, 11 principles of Journalism Code of Ethics, Ethical dilemmasM.S., Television Management -- Drexel University, 201