Experts says broadcasting bill too restrictive

Experts says broadcasting bill too restrictive

JAKARTA (JP): Noted mass communications expert Abdul Muis was
so dismayed with the government's bill on broadcasting that he
advised the House of Representatives yesterday against its
further deliberation.

"If I may use the expression, this bill is really a mess,"
Muis said, adding that "too much control betrays the basic
communication principles".

During a private hearing with the Golkar faction of the House
yesterday, the Hasanuddin University professor said the House
should return the bill to the government for redrafting.

The problem, he told the representatives, was that the bill
focuses too much on control but provides no guarantees on freedom
of expression.

Legislation should achieve a correct balance between the need
to regulate and the need to protect people's rights, he said.

The House this month began deliberation on the government-
sponsored bill on broadcasting. If enacted, it will be the first
time that Indonesia has a legal framework within which the
burgeoning broadcasting industry would be required to operate.

Currently, broadcasters operate under various government
regulations. In the case of news broadcasting, the regulation
gives the state-run television network TVRI and its sister, radio
RRI, a complete monopoly which requires private stations to relay
their productions.

Abdul Muis is not the first to criticize the bill. Broadcast
executives have also said that the legislation, if passed, would
be even more restrictive than the existing system.

The Golkar faction, the dominant group in the house, yesterday
invited two mass communication experts to give their assessments
of the bill. The other expert was Yaumil Agus Akhir of the
University of Indonesia.

Muis questioned, for example, the article that prohibits
political or religious groups from establishing their own
networks. "This is taking us back to the authoritarian concepts
widely used in 16th century," he said.

"We should look at the content of the programs rather than who
owns the networks," he said.

Muis also objected to the article in the bill which states
that broadcasters must obtain a separate permit from the
government to produce and air news.

"A permit is similar to censorship," he said.

The bill has gone further than the current restriction on the
Indonesian press, which only requires a publishing permit but
does not require a separate permit for printing the news, he
noted.

He said this limitation on broadcasting is not consistent with
the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

Yaumil criticized the bill on broadcasting for not protecting
the audience enough, particularly young people.

"There's not a single article in the bill which talks about
protecting the children," she said, adding that she was
particularly concerned about the negative impact of television on
children.

"Without such protection, the culture of violence and free sex
which appears on television will affect family lives," she said.

Yaumil said commercial networks, because of fierce competition
for ratings, have a tendency to show programs that contain
violence and promote free sex, in the absence of any firm law.

She cited Beverly Hills 90210, which one private station airs
every Sunday afternoon, as an example of a program which promotes
the culture of promiscuity among the young people. "I wonder why
this program was passed by the censor board?" she asked. (01)