Broadcasting bill deliberation starts
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)