Golkar tops list of TV ad

Moch. N. Kurniawan The Jakarta Post Jakarta

A media watchdog has found 130 breaches of campaign laws on TV advertising committed by political parties from March 16 to March 21, with Golkar topping the list.

Monitoring conducted by the Institute of the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) found that Golkar in an advertisement for its presidential candidate Lt. Gen. (ret) Prawobo Subianto, had played an advertisement up to 180 seconds in length, 94 times. The legal limit per advertisement spot is 30 seconds. The advertisement profiled Prabowo and canvassed the public for votes.

ISAI researcher Agus Sudibyo said the Concern for the Nation Functional Party (PKPB) was the second biggest offender with an advertisement over 30 seconds, which aired 28 times.

Of 130 violations, 123 were categorized as duration violations.

All stations, except Global TV, aired the advertisements.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was another offender, breaching the ruling limiting advertising to 10 spots per channel a day, followed by the PKPB and the Reform Star Party (PBR) with one breach apiece.

Of the ads, 48 were aired on Metro TV, 22 on SCTV, 13 on ANTV and 12 on TV7.

So far, ISAI figures showed parties had placed a total of 2,097 advertisements on TV, 527 of which were placed on state television TVRI, 343 on Metro TV, 293 on SCTV, 261 on ANTV, 237 on TV7, 236 on Indosiar, 219 on RCTI and TPI, 205 on Global TV, 194 on Lativi, and 173 on Trans TV.

Also attending the conference was Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) members Didik Supriyanto and Topo Santoso.

Earlier, Topo had said the regional Panwas believed the call from PDI-P leader President Megawati Soekarnoputri to "turn Jakarta red" in a rally scheduled for Sunday violated KPU rule No 701/2003 on election campaigning. Red is the color of the PDI-P.

Megawati made the call during a rally on Wednesday in Bekasi, West Java, while in Depok, the local committee discovered PDI-P banners encouraging PDI-P supporters to fill Jakarta with the color.

"The Panwaslu has warned the party that made such a call to withdraw the statement," he said.

Electoral campaigning, which started on March 11, will soon enter its third week when outdoor rallies are permitted.