Camelia Pasandaran – Commercial interests, self-censorship and fear of lawsuits are hindering the growth of high-quality news media in Indonesia, journalists and analysts say.

At the launching of her book "Editorial Autonomy of Four National Print Media," author Anett Keller, said some media owners are so market-driven they lose their autonomy. Rikard Bangun, chief editor of Kompas, agreed.

"Many media outlets think only about circulation or advertisements," he said. "They put the content of the news second to marketing."

He said the desperate chase after audiences leads to sensationalism. "The latest terrorism coverage shows how disoriented the media are," he said. "They can no longer tell which news is good and which isn't. "

Nasihin Masha, deputy chief editor of Republika, said many journalists still lacked advanced skills in this first decade following the fall of the Suharto regime.

"In the euphoria of freedom, journalists tend to ignore their function of conveying nothing but the truth," he said. "Some journalists tend to accept information from the authorities without bothering over whether it is true or not."

Metta Dharmasaputra, a senior journalist at Tempo magazine, said press freedom doesn't just require higher standards and skills. It can also affect a company's bottom line.

"Independence is not only about being daring to write the truth, it also about the costs that we have to pay to show our independence," he said. "Media that dare to report truthfully the results of investigative reporting have to be prepared for costly lawsuits."