The Human Rights Discourse in Indonesia Political Contestation

This study focuses on human rights discourse on the 2014 presidential and vice presidential campaign in Koran Sindo and Media Indonesia newspapers. Both media are building discourse because of alignment to certain presidential and vice presidential candidates. Sindo newspaper sided with Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa couples while Media Indonesia supports Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla. Using two research methods, the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough and critical linguistic analysis Roger Fowler and his colleagues, this research finds first that human rights discourse is used as a political tool, either endorsing or hitting certain presidential and vice presidential pairs. The discourse that he built is not to uphold human rights in Indonesia that is essential but for the sake of momentary interest in winning certain candidates in political contestation. This can be seen from the words, sentences, paradigms, and discourse that carried the two newspapers. Second, the alignment of Koran Sindo and Media Indonesia to certain presidential and vice presidential pairs make journalism both problematic. The five pillars of journalism under study are justice, objectivity, independence, impartiality / neutrality, and cover of both sides to collapse and loss of vital elbow.