Media Violence: Islamic Communication Ethics in the Context of Terror and Intimidation Against Journalists

Abstract

Violence against journalists is no longer individual in nature, but has become a structural mechanism embedded in the public communication system, where political, economic, and ideological interests compete to dominate media narratives. This research aims to comprehensively reveal the phenomenon of media violence against journalists in Indonesia through the dimension of communication ethics. Practices of violence, terror, and intimidation such as the symbolic pig's head terror and the withdrawal of press IDs (administrative) indicate that pressure on journalists is multidimensional and systemic, reflecting the imbalance of power relations and a crisis of public ethics. Using descriptive qualitative methods with data sources from AJI reports, news, and literature studies, this research analyzes the phenomenon using the theoretical framework of Jurgen Habermas and Islamic Communication Ethics. The results show that the intimidation violates Habermas's principle of communicative rationality and explicitly rejects the Islamic command to speak the truth (Qaulun Sadidan) and to respect dignity (Qaulun Kariman). Thus, this research concludes that the crisis of press freedom in Indonesia is a crisis of communication ethics, while also providing practical recommendations for the enforcement of moral values.