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Local journalists had mixed reactions to a recent report from France-based Reporters Without Borders that indicates press freedom in Indonesia improved over the past year.

The World Press Freedom survey placed Indonesia in 100th place from the 175 countries surveyed. It was 111th among 173 countries surveyed in 2008.

Nezar Patria, chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), noted that the improved ranking had set a positive precedent for the country’s press freedom.

“The government is more sensitive today and has started to listen to harsh criticism conveyed by the press,” he said.

Nezar added that the number of cases of violence against journalists had decreased and serious action had been taken against perpetrators.

“A journalist in Bali, Anak Agung Prabangsa, was murdered for what he wrote in his newspaper, but the police seem quite serious about investigating this murder,” he said, adding that he believed press freedom in Indonesia was the best among Southeast Asian nations.

“We’re lucky that the draconian defamation law is not really applied in our country. Nobody is really untouchable by law.”

But the deputy chairman of the Press Council doesn’t agree. Leo Batubara told the Jakarta Globe that press freedom had actually worsened under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration.

Leo pointed out to the passage of several laws he deemed as restricting press freedom during Yudhoyono’s government, such as the Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law, the Public Information Law, the Pornography Law and the bill on state secrecy. All, he said, provided loopholes and could allow the prosecution of journalists.

The ITE law has been particularly controversial, especially after it was used to prosecute civilians who expressed opinions on electronic media, including Prita Mulyasari, who is currently on trial for defamation after she wrote an e-mail message criticizing a private hospital.

However, Leo acknowledged that the number of journalists being imprisoned had decreased. For instance, Jupriadi “Upi” Asmaradhana, a freelance journalist in Makassar, South Sulawesi, was acquitted last month of a defamation charge filed by former South Sulawesi Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto.

Upi publicly protested a call from Sisno in May 2008 urging local officials not to hesitate to file charges against journalists they felt had defamed them. A defamation charge was leveled against Upi as a result of his protest.

But the judges ruled that Upi could not be charged with defamation because his statements had not been proven to be a personal attack on the former police chief, and were instead intended to criticize institutional authority in general.

Media analyst Ignatius Haryanto, on the other hand, criticized the survey for not touching on the essence of press freedom — freedom from any control. He said that although the government did not exert overly stringent controls on the press, media owners did.

This issue was on display last month in the lead-up to the Golkar Party’s national congress. Two of the media moguls competing for the chairmanship of the party — Surya Paloh, who owns news channel Metro TV, and Aburizal Bakrie, the owner of ANTV and TVOne — publicly aired what amounted to campaign rallies on their television stations, resulting in viewers filing complaints against the programs for being overtly biased.

On its Web site, Reporters Without Borders stated that the index should in no way be taken as an indication of the quality of the press in the countries concerned and that the ranking reflected the situation during a specific period. The index was based solely on events between Sept. 1, 2008, and Sept. 1, 2009, in every country.

The index was compiled based on criteria such as censorship of news media, the degree of impunity enjoyed by violators of press freedom and the ability of the media to investigate and criticize.