Religion over Ethical Journalism

Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover

Summary

Google Image: The Cover of Tempo

One of Indonesia’s top weeklies magazines, Tempo has apologised to the Christian community in Indonesia for portraying former president Suharto and his children as Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. Suharto was depicted as Jesus Christ and his children were the apostles which prompted complaints between the Christian communities.

Tempo Chief Editor Toriq Hadad says, “We had no intention of hurting Christians. We were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not in the concept or context of the event told in the holy bible”. Several Christian groups and inter-religious organisations congregated at the Tempo office to protest over the cover. This has led to Hadad making a public apology: “For anything unacceptable arising from the publishing of that cover, I, in the name of the Tempo institution, offer an apology.”

Link to theory: Taking responsibility of one’s action

Tempo magazine should understand the “dichotomy between knowing what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and applying it in situations” (Weber 2005). It is very obvious why the Christian community were sensitive about the whole situation because the magazine cover was inflicting religious matter. Certainly, the cultural differences in Indonesia have caused this issue to blow up. However the question still lies on whether Tempo magazine did take the responsibility for its action.

Indeed, they did. Tempo did take the responsibility for its action and apologised as they knew it has offended the Christians. Although the chief editor of Tempo admits that their action were not intentional, he took matter into his own hands to resolve the issue.

My opinion

With regards to the issue, I personally think what Tempo magazine has done was ethically wrong. They were not culturally sensitive towards the Christian community in Indonesia, as a matter of fact to Christians worldwide. According to Feijter (2008, p. 159), “media culture is mosaic and dynamic and touches upon emotions before intellect”. Feijter agrees that when selling product one should not exploit the use of religion themes just for the sake of increasing product sales.

Additional Reading

In an article, Freedom of religion confronts journalism by Meghan Michael states that there have been many controversial issues happening in which religious groups are offended by the abuse of freedom of speech. She adds on that journalists should “maintain a delicate balance between being respectful of religious beliefs” in order to advocate ethical reporting.


Reference

Feijter, I 2008, ‘The Art of Dialogue: Religion, Communication and Global Media Culture’, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, viewed on 11 November 2008, http://books.google.com/books?id=gq2yJFu3EUAC&printsec=frontcover

‘Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover’ 2008, ABC.net, viewed on 11 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm

Michael, M 2007, ‘Freedom of Religion Confronts Journalism’, BCHeights.Com, viewed on 11 November 2008, http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/03/26/News/Freedom.Of.Religion.Confronts.Journalism-2791570-page2.shtml

Weber, J H 1995,’Ethics in scientific and technical communication’, WISENET Journal 38, viewed on 11 November 2008, http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=22