•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum had the most negative press coverage of nine possible presidential candidates, a nongovernmental organization’s report on 2011 has revealed.

Abdul Hakim, the research director of the Indonesia office of the Developing Countries Support Committee, said Anas had the received the highest number of unfavorable media reports.

The eight other possible candidates are Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, former president and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Rajasa, Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) politician Prabowo Subianto, former finance minister and now World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, media mogul Surya Paloh and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono.

Abdul said that 3.5 percent of the time, Anas was mentioned in the press in a negative light. He explained that this included criticism, ridicule, satire and rebuttals of Anas’ statements or acts.

The negative media attention was largely caused by Anas’ alleged links to large-scale corruption cases at the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry, Abdul said, adding that 47 percent of the press coverage of Anas alluded to the allegations.

“However, 23 percent of the coverage was positive while 73 percent was neutral,” he said.

The study looked at stories that ran in seven widely read Indonesian language newspapers — Kompas, Media Indonesia, Indo Pos, Republika, Rakyat Merdeka, Suara Pembaruan and Seputar Indonesia — from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 last year.

Hatta, who is also the coordinating minister for the economy and an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, received the most media mentions, according to the study.

Hatta was mentioned in 2,442 of the 7,476 articles studied, while Anas appeared in 1,256 and Aburizal in 1,158. Abdul said this was due to the fact that Hatta held more than one key post.

Surya, who is the owner of Media Indonesia, made headlines last year for helping to establish the NasDem Party, named after the National Democrat movement that Paloh cofounded along with Hamengkubuwono in 2010. The new party has qualified for the 2014 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, 7 percent of media mentions of Hatta linked him to the presidential race, while 24 percent of press coverage of Aburizal mentioned the 2014 elections. Only 9 percent of the coverage of Anas alluded to his possible presidential bid.

However, Abdul was quick to point out that the results of the DCSC study were not related to a candidate’s electability.

“There is no correlation between the number of times the person is mentioned in the press and their chances in the 2014 elections,” he said.