President Yudhoyono Thanks Media for Their Criticism

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono thanked the media for their criticism of him, saying it had helped to prevent him from becoming "careless" in making decisions. "Actually, I have been one of the victims of the press, but I also have to thank them, because if they had not criticized me since my first day in office, I might have fallen. Perhaps I would have become careless in making decisions or I might have taken illogical policies or I might have thought I could do anything, as I had power. In view of that, I would like to thank the press," he said at a meeting of the central executive board of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) here on Wednesday. The PWI board members who were appointed at the meeting, included Margiono as the general chairman; Ilham Bintang, the honorary council chairman; Tarman Azzam, advisory board chairman; Sofyan Lubis, PWI Foundation chairman; Ahmad Khusaeni as chairman of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists; and Teguh Santoso, chairman of the foreign cooperation bureau. In his criticism of some news stories, President Yudhoyono said that journalists often produced stories with unclear sources or based on unaccountable social media sources, and such stories contained slanders, were judgmental or were not cross-checked for the accuracy of their facts. Citing an example, he referred to recent reporting about his nomination of Commissioner General Sutarman as the sole candidate to become the next national police chief to replace current chief, General Timur Pradopo. "What has so far been reported is a made-up story, which is that Commissioner General Sutarman is actually not the one that General Timur Pradopo has proposed, but the name emerged after SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) was lobbied by someone," he said. (*)