Group protests 'SCTV' gives 'one-sided' reports
JAKARTA (JP): Around 20 people representing a group calling itself the Islamic Committee for Press Monitoring (KUPP) staged a demonstration outside the offices of SCTV private television station on Wednesday to express their anger at what they saw as biased coverage of last week's clashes between anti-government protesters and security personnel.
The demonstrators accused the TV station of using the clashes near Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta on Nov. 11 and the Semanggi cloverleaf junction on Nov. 13 to benefit a particular political faction by discrediting the government and blackening the Armed Forces' reputation.
"In its news coverage of the Special Session, SCTV formed the opinion that the clashes were engineered by the military..." the committee said in a statement submitted to the TV station.
The statement was signed by the committee's coordinator, Ali Mochtar Ngabalin. It was the third protest they have staged outside the station. Similar protests were staged last Thursday and on Monday of this week.
The news director of Surya Citra Televisi, Reza Primadi, denied rumors that he was to be transferred from the news department as a result of the complaints.
"It's not true, I like where I am now," he told The Jakarta Post. He also denied that Timmy Habibie, a brother of President B.J. Habibie, is buying shares in the station.
The committee demanded the TV station issue a public apology for screening imbalanced and one-sided news coverage of the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly. The session, which ran from Nov. 10 to Nov. 13, was marred by daily street rallies.
The committee also said it wanted the TV station to publicly announce that it was owned jointly by former president Soeharto, his son Bambang Trihatmodjo and some of his cronies, including Hendri Pribadi and Peter Gontha.
It charged that Gontha had been placed in the station's management to help the owners discredit the military and the government of President B.J. Habibie.
Meanwhile, Minister of Information Muhamad Yunus asked the state-owned TV station TVRI and RRI radio station to be more selective in their news broadcasts to help cool the political situation.
Speaking before a TVRI-RRI technical meeting here on Wednesday, the minister said the TV and radio stations should be responsive, sensitive and selective with the news they broadcast to the public.
He said the TV and radio stations were expected to be able to present positive and balanced news and analysis of the latest developments in the country.
"If anarchic demonstrations continue, national unity will be threatened and international confidence in our government will be undermined," he said. (rms)