If I learned anything from attending a journalism seminar by a humongous online news publication and the pioneer of online journalism

in Indonesia, that one thing would be how envelope journalism has become a trend.

Envelope journalism is a term used to describe the practice of bribing journalist. In Asia, this trend has been gaining a lot of attention from the public as well as the media that obliges to their code of ethics. In China, for example, many journalists have come forward and admit they receive money to report on specific news (read here). The media in the Philippines (read here) and Malaysia (read here) have also been known to be paid and used for political agenda.

Going back to Indonesia, the word bribe may sound connotative, but as an industry that has been at both ends of media regulation spectrum, the act of giving and receiving envelope (read: bribe) is expected.

Then, whose fault is this? Is it the journalists who receive the envelope and sometimes insisting to get one? Or is it PR practitioners fault for giving the envelope and sometimes insisting to give one?

Unfortunately, answering this question is like answering the chicken and egg question - no right answer. But, as an Indonesian, I know one thing for sure; you dont mess with the media!

The Indonesian journalists and bloggers are very outspoken people--they report on every fact and trivial matter you could think of. Moreover, the Indonesian Press Law No. 40 guarantees full liberty for the media: no control from the government over content and every one can open their own publications because no government permit is required. And, what does it mean for PR practitioners in Indonesia? They will find themselves either ridiculed or overlooked by the media.

In a recent press conference, for example, an invited blogger tweeted out criticisms for the press conference. A day later, she posted a blog entry with all the mistakes that the press conference organizer did, including giving out money. This blog was picked out by the Editor-in-Chief of Detik who then tweeted it out to over 20,000 people. For PR practitioners,

this could be one of the worst things that can happen to their companies.

Despite being a trend, practicing envelope journalism in Indonesia proves to be a risky decision. Public relations industry has its own code of ethics, and stepping out of that boundary is opening the company to ridicule and failure. Do not think that all Indonesian media overlooked their code of ethics, because the most powerful media publications are the one who practice the code ethics strictly. This is even so when you are trying to develop business-to-business relationship.

Understanding ones culture to develop a relationship between businesses is the golden key for success; and a report by the UK Trade & Investment stated clearly that Indonesians focus on developing personal relationships.

Media publications are businesses too--they do focus on personal relationships too and I do believe this culture is not strictly Indonesians, but commonly Asians.

So, if you want to establish relationship, you better do it the old fashion way: Dinner, anyone!