Broadcasting bill deliberation starts

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives began re- deliberating yesterday the broadcasting bill that the government refused to enact after it was passed by the House last December.

Representing the government in the unprecedented deliberation, Minister of Information R. Hartono ushered in the processing of the bill by offering five key issues to be discussed by the House.

He suggested that the House drop an article from the bill that would allow state-owned television TVRI to air selected advertisements, and another that would allow private companies to build TV stations in provincial capitals.

Hartono also proposed an alteration to articles dealing with a term of license for private TV stations, span of coverage of TV stations, and special broadcasting companies.

"The government has found that either the articles cannot be applied to real business life or do not comply with other regulations which have been made to help private broadcasting companies develop," Hartono said.

During his speech, Hartono made no mention of the government plan to ban the use of dubbing in imported films. He told reporters later that the bill had already ruled against the dubbing of non-English language films into Indonesian.

Some observers have said the re-deliberation was an embarrassment to the House and a display of the legislative body's ineffectiveness before the executive branch.

The House, pressed for time, named a team of 21 legislators led by R.Y.K. Mukmin of the Golkar faction for the deliberation. Both parties agreed to meet seven more times between Aug. 29 and Sept. 10.

The House is expected to pass the amended bill on Sept. 18, pending approval from the House's consultative body, according to Mukmin. Due to the limited time, the team might also hold meetings in the evenings, he said.

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Hartono insisted that the government would maintain the ban on commercials from TVRI. He said if the state-owned station was allowed to air even selected advertisements, it could threaten private stations' income from commercials.

The bill says TVRI's operational costs are paid by the annual state budget, contributions from all private TV stations and other legal means.

"The problem is that (private companies') contributions and selected commercials (on TVRI) come from the same sources," Hartono said.

The government opposed the stipulation on the establishment of stations at provincial capitals because they would either kill local radio stations or lose out to competition with existing stations whose span of coverage reaches remote areas in the country.

The argument that regions in Indonesia may need specific programs was rejected by the government on the grounds that TVRI managed to "meet local people's needs for regional information".

As for a revision of the article which limits stations' span of coverage to half of the country's population, Hartono said many people across the archipelago already receive programs transmitted by state-owned satellite Palapa.

Besides, most existing private stations are now building additional terrestrial transmitters in various provinces, Hartono said.

"Such a limitation would only cause an information gap between people, particularly information which promotes national unity.

"Rather than impose restrictions, we want to help private stations expand their coverage to reach most of the country's population," he said.

Hartono said the government was also seeking House approval on the extension of the five-year term license given to private TV stations, saying that the term was too short for companies to financially break even.

"We would say a maximum of 10 years looks more appropriate," he said. (amd)