September 27, 2024
JAKARTA – Presidential spokesperson Hasan Nasbi said on Thursday that once in office president-elect Prabowo Subianto was expected to do away with the impromptu press briefings with journalists given by outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Hasan was quoted by Kompas.com saying that the decision was part of a greater scheme to limit access provided to journalists by Prabowo and that the president-elect would only make official statements when necessary.
“For instance, if the President is on a visit to a wet market and he is subjected to questions from reporters, he may not be ready with an answer. We don’t want to create confusion,” Hasan said.
Hasan said Prabowo needed to prepare his responses to questions from journalists and that he would only answer questions in a scheduled press conference.
“In the future, the President will only speak to the press in routine press briefings and only on matters that have been confirmed,” Hasan said.
In the past 10 years, outgoing President Jokowi developed the habit of speaking directly to reporters on the sidelines of his official visits, at times making statements that created controversy.
The last time President Jokowi caused a stir was when he defended the government’s decision to start exporting sand to neighboring Singapore, saying that the material to be shipped was in fact sediment and not sea sand.