Armando Siahaan – Recent political shenanigans have certainly raised questions about how much Indonesian politics have progressed since the end of the New Order regime. But the fact that news of such misdeeds has been made public marks significant progress for the nation in terms of press freedom.

The Muhammad Nazaruddin saga serves as a salient example. The name of the ruling Democratic Party's ousted treasurer first popped up due to his alleged involvement in a Rp 3.2 billion [$374,400] graft scandal surrounding the construction of the Southeast Asian Games athletes' village in Palembang – this was followed by reports of his alleged attempt to pay a 120,000 Singapore dollar [$97,000] bribe to the secretary general of the Constitutional Court.

The broad exposure of the saga, which has spread beyond the confines of the conventional media – via SMS, BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and blogs – shows that the country has come a long way in developing the watchdog role of the media and overcoming government censorship. It is important to note that Nazaruddin is a top-ranking member of the ruling party, led by none other than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

If such a scandal had occurred under the New Order regime, when the media was subject to draconian censorship, not a single word about the ruling party's corrupt deeds would have been made public.

The old government would have made sure that any wrongdoing, whether political or financial, perpetrated by members of the ruling party, would be swept under the rug, out of the sight of media outlets.

The mere fact that the Indonesian media are willing and able to cover scandals of the magnitude of Nazaruddin's shows that the press has embraced its role as an independent monitor of power and is no longer subject to the whims of the country's political elites.

While the media themselves do not have the power to punish those who abuse their position, they have the ability to shape public opinion in such a way as to allow the people to judge corrupt leaders for themselves.

This can only be seen as a good thing. Journalism's main purpose is, after all, to serve and protect its citizen.

Another example of how the power of the media has been used to serve the public interest can be seen in what's happened to the new House of Representatives building proposal.

The news first broke in May of last year, when lawmakers announced that the office tower would cost a staggering Rp 1.8 trillion. Not surprisingly, the proposal was met with a tidal wave of public criticism.

To give voice to the people's outrage, many media outlets deployed a blitzkrieg campaign in protest of the appalling House project.

Headlines, editorials, talk shows, radio programs – all channels were exhausted to make sure that the lawmakers would not get what they had childishly wished for.

As a result of the media's efforts, the House were forced to put the project on hold. A few months later, lawmakers agreed to cut the cost of the building to Rp 1.13 trillion.

Of course, common sense says that even that figure is ridiculous, especially considering that the request for a new building was based on nothing but lawmakers' hubris.

So the media again bombarded the legislators with criticism. The House then suggested a severely reduced budget of Rp 800 million before putting off the project indefinitely.

While this tale cannot be considered closed just yet, the cancellation of the plan is, at the very least, a testament to the fact that the media now has the power to ensure that those at the top cannot abuse their authority heedlessly. This is not to say that we have achieved complete press freedom.

In year-end review, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), a group that promotes press freedoms in Indonesia, reported that incidents of violence against journalists rose from 46, up from 37 in 2009. The severity of these attacks ranged from the ransacking of offices and the confiscation of journalist tools to assault and even murder.

Furthermore, some media organizations blatantly run stories that serve the political interests of their corporate supporters, while plenty of misbehaving reporters commit journalistic sins ranging from spinning their sources' statements to "befriending" sources for all the wrong reasons.

But today, the press does have the freedom to fulfill one of its most fundamental roles in society: to act as an independent institution that keeps an eye on those in power.

[Armando Siahaan is a reporter at the Jakarta Globe and writes a weekly column about current events.]