Crime news programs enjoy high ratings

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

Monday to Saturday around noon. Welcome to the grimmest hours on television. Now, voyeurs of disturbing images do not need to log on to the internet and put search words in like "rotten corpses" to get their kicks. All they have to do is turn on their televisions.

The grim images might give you a chance to see whether you have a strong stomach or not since most television stations, which run several news programs specializing in crime reports -- with murder cases dominating the airtime, often include footage of the dead victims.

The crime shows also test your faith in humanity since many suspected killers commit the crimes for seemingly trivial motives -- a husband murdered his wife for refusing to make coffee or a woman who killed her little step son for crying while she was cooking.

These programs, unfortunately, do not only prove the cruelty of our society, but also the alarming level of audiences' enjoyment in seeing blood and gore.

Housewives are the ones who are likely to have the time to watch the programs. And they have proven to be loyal audiences.

"I like it when they report murder cases, especially when they show both the criminals and the dead bodies," said 41-year-old A'as Suryana who always watches the program while doing her cooking.

Another housewife, Sainah, said such programs gave her a heart-pounding experience every time she watched it.

Like it or not, such programs get good ratings.

Crime news program Patroli (Patrol) on private television Indosiar has enjoyed ratings of between seven and eight since it was launched over two years ago.

In April this year, SCTV launched a similar program called Buser, which is short for buru (hunt) and sergap (arrest), to get a bite of the viewers' share. The program was also going strong with an average rating of five.

The two programs directly compete with each other since they share the same air time from 11.30 a.m. to noon every Monday to Saturday.

Another set of programs with a similar magnetism are the reports on suspected criminals who are captured and severely beaten by locals. And later on, these suspects would be interviewed by TV reporters, with, in many cases, the screen showing their badly swollen faces and at times, with blood still running from wounds on their heads and faces.

Rape cases, especially those that occur among family members, are also one of the programs' highlights.

Unfortunately, the reports are carelessly presented. Most of them include interviews with the suspects and the victims with their faces blurred but still easily be recognized.

The careless presentation has cause concern among media observers.

Director of a media watchdog, the Institute for Media and Social Studies (IMSS) Veven Sp. Wardhana expressed his objection over such irresponsible reports.

"Sometimes they blur the rape victims' faces but (on the other hand) they show the victims' parents without any filter during interviews. Those who know the parents will know who the victims are," Veven said.

He also pointed out the fact that other horrifying images in the programs could be easily watched by children who happen to come home early from school, or worse, children who are still too young to go to school.

TV people, however, denied that they were being irresponsible.

"We have done all the necessary protection for suspects and victims in our (crime news) program," Indosiar's head of public relations, Gufron Sakaril, said.

Gufron said the program often used the blurring effect and only showed parts of dead bodies. "We often only show the feet or the hands of the corpses," he said.

Apart from the two news programs, there's also TV news magazines which present crime reports in a longer format for each case.

Indosiar, for instance, screens Jejak Kasus (Following the Case) right after Patroli every Monday. Jejak Kasus which premiered four months ago also receives a high rating of eight which sometimes, according to Gufron, even surpassed Patroli's.

SCTV has a similar program called Derap Hukum (March of Law) every Monday at 9:30 p.m. while ANteve has Fakta (Fact) every Monday at 9 p.m.

New TV station Lativi also airs its own crime news magazine, Lativi Investigasi (Investigation) every Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

All of these programs, however, share a similar way of presenting their stories which often border on tastelessness. The only thing which makes them stay on air might be their loyal audiences who keep on watching without complaint. Perhaps we can blame it on local TV dramas sinetron which keeps on feeding viewers with dreams, making them now turn to crime programs which can give them a convincing show, no matter how grim they are.