Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – An NGO unveiled that media liberalization, which started in 1998, has served the owners' interests rather than those of the public.

"Media owners tend to use their media to serve their political interests. That's worrisome," Kristiawan from the Tifa foundation said on Friday.

He said another interesting fact about media liberalization was the massive growth of advertisement. According to 2010 data on media advertisement, Rp 60 trillion had been spent to advertise through several mass media with the biggest portion spent on television.

However, he went on, the significant figure on media advertisement did not automatically leverage the journalist's welfare. He said up to this date there were still many journalists who received monthly salaries below standard rates.

He said another annoying fact was that many Journalists had been attacked while carrying out their duties.

Furthermore, according to the Indonesia Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI), 10 journalists had been murdered since 1998 but none of the perpetrators had been brought to trial.

A media observer from Gadjah Mada University, Arie Sudjito said the public should be able to participate in monitoring the media in terms of its function of reporting the news.(nai/dic)