Group protests 'SCTV' gives 'one-sided' reports

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)