KPU urges media to be professional<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The General Elections Commission (KPU), the Election Supervisory
\nCommittee and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) are
\ndrafting election campaign guidelines to govern coverage on radio
\nand television, which will set limitations on the length of the
\nadvertising slots allocated to candidates.<\/p>\n
KPU member Hamid Awaluddin said on Tuesday that the guidelines
\nwould not allow party or Regional Representatives Council (DPD)
\ncandidates to book more than 10 slots of 30 seconds duration
\nduring each day of the campaign. This was in line with KPU
\nInstruction No. 701\/2004 on the election campaign, he said.<\/p>\n
Election candidates would also be banned from buying slots. If
\nthis was not the case, it was feared that the big parties with
\nhuge financial resources would gain an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n
\"These guidelines will provide the Election Supervisory
\nCommittee with yardsticks for conducting monitoring during the
\ncampaign,\" Hamid told a press conference after a meeting of
\nmembers of KPU, the supervisory committee, the KPI and
\nrepresentatives of non-governmental organizations.<\/p>\n
The discussions on the drafting of the guidelines would start
\non Thursday.<\/p>\n
The KPU instruction stipulates that parties and DPD candidates
\nwill only be allocated a maximum of 10 spots on radio with a
\nduration of 60 seconds per spot, and are prohibited from using
\nslots allotted to other candidates for whatever reason.<\/p>\n
Hamid said the guidelines would also require all TV and radio
\nstations to announce publicly their advertising rates for the
\nelection campaign and the payment procedures.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, KPI chairman Victor Menayang said the planned
\nguidelines would protect radio and television stations from
\npressure from the political parties, provide parties with equal
\nopportunities to air advertisements, and ensure that the public
\nreceived high quality information.<\/p>\n
He said that those broadcasters who violated the guidelines
\nwould be punished.<\/p>\n
\"The violators will receive punishments ranging from
\nreprimands to being ordered to stop airing news as provided for
\nin the Broadcasting Law,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Supervisory committee chairman Komaruddin Hidayat had
\nsomething else to say, however.<\/p>\n
\"There will be no punishments. These guidelines are not
\nregulations but rather suggestions,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The KPU instruction on the election campaign says nothing
\nabout sanctions.<\/p>\n
Victor also said it would be difficult to regulate the
\neditorial policy of media outlets in covering the election as
\nthis would greatly depend on the outlets themselves.<\/p>\n
\"We have to admit that for some media outlets certain parties
\nare newsmakers while others are not,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A senior executive of the Media Election Coalition, Indra J.
\nPiliang, hailed the plan to draft campaign guidelines for the
\nmedia, saying it would make it easier for his organization to
\nmonitor the campaign, particularly in the electronic media.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kpu-urges-media-to-be-professional-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}