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Indonesian media have yet to take full advantage of freedom of the press, senior editorial staff members said.

It’s been more than a decade since the fall of former President Suharto ushered in a new era of press freedom. But participants in a discussion during the launch of a new book on the subject said media company owners and journalists had failed to boost the quality of their reporting over that time.

During the kick-off for Anett Keller’s “Internal Challenges: Editorial Autonomy in Four Print Media,” Rikard Bangun, chief editor for Kompas, said the media were increasingly focused on what he called market-oriented journalism.

“Many media [outlets] think only in terms of circulation or advertising,” he said. “They put news content after market” interests.

With too much focus on the market, journalists tend to highlight the sensational details of news rather than its substance or context, he said.

“The latest terrorism coverage shows how the media has experienced disorientation,” Rikard said. “They can no longer differentiate between news that is really good and what is not.”

Nasihin Masha, a deputy chief editor of Republika, said journalists’ current level of professionalism was alarmingly low. “In the euphoria of press freedom, journalists tend to ignore their function to convey nothing but the truth,” he said.

The new crop of journalists, he said, were for the most part unable to penetrate beyond superficial reports about events.

“Some journalists tend to accept information from authorities without even bothering to check whether it is true or not,” Nasihin said.

Participants also said the media had spurned their freedom by being too cautious about expressing opinions or analysis.