Censor board defends violence, sex standards

JAKARTA (JP): The Film Censorship Institute, accused of laxity of standards, has declined responsibility for the country's television schedules, which the public says are saturated with sex and violence.

"The body doesn't pass programs which are filled with sex and violence," institute director Soekanto told The Jakarta Post yesterday. "All films which are broadcast on television have passed our criteria.

"If people say that our standards are lax, let them talk. They're just emotional. They don't know that we have standards and criteria that we use to judge whether to pass a film."

He cited kissing scenes as an example of how it implements its standards. "We can't just ban all kissing scenes. If there is kissing between father and daughters, we leave it in," he said. "But if the kissing scenes become explicit, then we'll certainly cut them."

He said that the recent agreement between the state-owned TVRI and five private television stations to cut down on sex-and- violence programs has not caused much change to the censor body's work.

He dismissed reports that the body will hold a meeting with the television stations to follow up on the agreement.

The television stations agreed on Wednesday to establish a forum among themselves to prevent unhealthy competition and to reduce the number of programs with content, such as cohabitation, that is contrary to local and religious values. A number of popular television series, such as Baywatch and Melrose Place, are reportedly going to be scrapped soon.

Budi Darmawan of SCTV said his station would not face problems in reducing the number of programs which contain explicit sex and violence. "We haven't broadcast many films which contain too much sex or violence," he said.

Zoraya Perucha of ANteve said that her station could easily comply with the agreement as it has been its policy all along to curb sex and violence in its programs.

The stations also agreed on Wednesday to increase the production and airing of local programs to 80 percent.

The television stations said yesterday that they are still studying a recent appeal by Minister of Information Harmoko to dub foreign programs into Indonesian.

Budi Darmawan said the called-for dubbing of foreign films, if undertaken, will be a great financial burden on the stations.

"We're still studying the appeal. At the moment, it is still just an appeal," Budi told the Post yesterday.

"It's too early to talk about it," Zoraya said. "But, we have already started to look at our own situation before making any decision."

The minister's appeal will become law if the House of Representatives approves a bill on broadcasting. The bill will be debated next week by the House.

Budi and Zoraya, however, said they were not sure whether the appeal for dubbing excludes programs in English. "It's my understanding that we have to dub all foreign programs into Indonesian," Budi said.

Zoraya agreed the project will be costly, but admitted that the appeal does have its positive aspects.

"The public will find it easier to understand our programs," and added that, if undertaken, the appeal will force television stations to compete for good dubbers.

"Good dubbers are very hard to find, especially those who can 'play' with their voices and reveal their emotion just like the actors in the films," she said.

Harmoko had earlier said that his appeal applies to imported television programs from India, China and Latin America, all of which are growing in popularity among Indonesian viewers. Most of these programs have already been dubbed into Indonesian. (31)

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