---

Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah with Head of the Public Relations and Domestic Cooperation Department Fajar Laksono and Head of the International Affairs Division Immanuel Hutasoit at a webinar by Max Planck Foundation, Monday (9/11/2020) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—To the Constitutional Court (MK), independence is imperative in producing virtuous ruling based on the just law. The judiciary shows independence by freeing itself from outside interference, including public opinion. In order to gain public trust, the Constitutional Court doesn’t show its credibility through rhetoric, but real actions. This was stated by Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah when opening the seminar in collaboration with the Max Planck Foundation (MPF) and the Supreme Court of the Maldives virtually on Monday, November 9, 2020.

At the seminar on “Public Relation Strategy to Maintain and Ensure the Independence of the Constitutional Court,” Guntur said that transparency is an effort to maintain judicial independence. In the Constitutional Court, this is strongly correlated to the public relations function of the Court’s Public Relations and Protocol Bureau, whose main duty is to provide accurate information to the public promptly and to work with the press to show the Court’s credibility.

In a presentation on “The Practice and Experience of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia,” he said that in the era of democracy and independence, the public demands transparency from the judiciary. The Constitutional Court realized this is part of fulfilling public demand of information. “Therefore, the Constitutional Court believes that transparency is not only an obligation, but also a need,” he said alongside the Head of the Public Relations and Domestic Cooperation Department Fajar Laksono and the Head of the International Affairs Division Immanuel Hutasoit.

Before 30 international participants, Guntur said that the Court’s public relations strategy is the access to public information regarding the Court’s activities and performance, both hearing- and non-hearing-related, on its website. The Court also publishes up-to-date information on its Instagram, Facebook, Twitter accounts and YouTube channel. This transparency hopefully would assure the public and eliminate any prejudice.

Professionalism

In the Q&A session after the presentations, Brynne Gutrie from the Max Planck Foundation asked about the limits to public access to the Constitutional Court. Guntur responded by saying that the Court had not set any limits to what the public and the press can access. He said that the Court believes in the media to provide accurate information based on what is available on the Court’s website.

“This unlimited access depends solely on the professionalism of [the members of] the media. [Anything goes] as long as it doesn’t deviate from the data on the Court’s website. We believe in the journalists’ adherence to the code of ethics in providing information to the public,” he said. The seminar was also attended by Imogen Canavan from the Max Planck Foundation, Mathilda Twomey from the Judicial Institute for Africa (JIFA), and Aisha Shujune Muhamad from the Supreme Court of the Maldives.

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 11/16/2020 16:36 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

---