Minister turned off by gory TV programs<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Private television stations were reminded
\nyesterday of their role as a medium to foster unity and educate
\nthe public, and were told not to dramatize news reports with
\ngraphic footage.<\/p>\n
During a meeting with representatives of the five private
\ntelevision stations in his office yesterday, Minister of
\nInformation Muhammad Alwi Dahlan said television touched a large
\nsegment of society and that stations had an important role in
\nlifting public awareness and understanding of important issues.<\/p>\n
He said news and feature stories should be reported with the
\naim of unifying the people.<\/p>\n
He also called on television stations not to dramatize news
\nreports to increase ratings.<\/p>\n
The representatives from RCTI, SCTV, ANteve, TPI and Indosiar
\nwere reporting to the minister on preparations for an upcoming
\ntelevision series, or sinetron, festival.<\/p>\n
The National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) yesterday slammed
\ntelevision news reporting for its vulgar content when it
\nannounced the results of a study on the subject.<\/p>\n
Communications expert Rusdi Muchtar said the study concluded
\nthat graphic footage was still prevalent in many news reports.<\/p>\n
\"Such vulgarity is evident in television (news reports), such
\nas showing the scene of a homicide in detail. One can even
\nsometimes see blood and part of a corpse,\" he said as quoted by
\nAntara.<\/p>\n
He expressed concern over the psychological effects such
\nscenes could have on children.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging that there is some debate over how
\ntelevision directly influences societal behavior, Rusdi said the
\ninstitute's research in four cities -- Medan in North Sumatra,
\nUjungpandang in South Sulawesi and Bekasi and Bogor in West Java
\n-- found a positive correlation between viewing action films and
\nthe level of crime.<\/p>\n
If violent action films are linked with the graphic scenes
\nshown in crime reports, viewers, especially young ones, could
\nperceive real life violence as an affirmation of the violent
\nscenes they see in movies, Rusdi said.<\/p>\n
\"Maybe for adults the scenes in action films and criminal
\ntelevision reports are quite normal and have little influence.
\nBut for children and teenagers, the fiction they see in films and
\nthe violence they see in TV crime news unite as a single
\nreality,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He urged strong evaluation of visual content in crime news
\nreports, saying that news could be accurately reported without
\ngraphic film clips.<\/p>\n
\"The viewer should be able to understand and appreciate the
\nfull content of the news without the station having to exploit
\nthe scene or victim of the crime,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"For that purpose we need to study more about presenting
\npictures so that scenes in crime news reports do not ignore
\nethics.\" (mds)<\/p>",
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