Managing the Media Policy in the ASEAN Economics Community (AEC)

On the National Press Day, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Jokowi, stated that the press has an important function of social control. Information always has two contradictory sides, just like 'Jamu'. Although it tastes very bitter, it is a healthy vitamin. By giving information that is inconsistent with the fact will induce public distrust towards the authorities. The biggest challenge for the media, as one of the democracy pillars, is the non-partisan manner. The media ownership, centers on a handful of owners, will potentially give similar information which does not provide information diversity. The Indonesian media ownership has unique models, one of them is turning the information to become a tool for politic communications. The media policy, adopted by the media owners, should be parallel with the government policy, with no exception within the era of AEC. The adversarial role between the government and the media has produced counterproductive information that has led to public distrust.