House delays passing broadcasting bill as radio, TV vow to defy
House delays passing broadcasting bill as radio, TV vow to defy
Kurniawan Hari and Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives bowed to mounting pressure on
Wednesday and delayed endorsing the controversial broadcasting
bill, which TV and radio operators and other critics say is too
repressive.
The decision to postpone the bill's approval was made at a
meeting between a House committee deliberating the bill and State
Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul Mu'arif.
The delay, however, does not necessarily mean the House and
the government are willing to revise the articles within the
draft law.
Radio and television operators, experts and activists from
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said on Wednesday that they
would oppose the controversial bill being passed into law if the
many contentious issues were not first addressed.
Nurhadi Purwosaputro, the secretary-general of the Indonesian
Broadcasting Televisions' Association (ATVSI), said he could not
say whether the delay to endorse the bill would be sufficient to
accommodate the proposed revisions and grievances in the draft
law.
"We can't accept the bill if it is approved by the House while
controversial articles are still in place," he said.
The chairman of the special committee deliberating the bill,
Paulus Widiyanto, said that the bill's endorsement was delayed to
give legislators more time to inform the public about its
contents, not to seek public input to revise the contentious
articles.
After the bill is publicized, fellow legislator Bahrum Rasir
from the Military/Police faction said he hoped the controversial
bill would be approved sometime in November.
Minister Syamsul shared the same opinion, saying that the bill
would be finalized in the next meeting with the House committee,
slated for Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, just one day before the House
enters its recess.
The minister said he hoped that the two-day deliberation of
the bill next week would make it 99 percent perfect, so that the
legislators would be able to publicize the bill during the
recess.
"We hope there will be no more debate after the recess,"
Syamsul added.
In a dialog with the minister earlier on Wednesday, the ATVSI,
the Association of Television Journalists (AJTI), academics and
NGO activists raised objections to the many articles in the bill
and urged the House and the government to revise the many
articles.
The issues include the role of the Indonesian Broadcasting
Commission (KPI) as stipulated in the bill, which ATVSI and other
critics say was "too repressive".
The bill allows the independent commission, whose members are
elected by the House, to revoke TV and radio licenses and impose
sanctions on them without court approval.
"These provisions should be scrapped because revoking media
licenses and imposing sanctions are the right of the court, not a
commission," said Nurhadi.
Another controversial article is Article 7, which allows the
KPI to intervene in determining the contents and classification
of programs.
The AJTI said it should be clarified whether this includes
news programs. If so, the bill could be considered as a move to
curb freedom of the press, it added.
Meanwhile, legal expert and former justice minister Muladi
from the Habibie Center described the broadcasting bill as
repressive as it would cripple the national electronic media
industry.
"It would be dangerous to undermine the broadcasting industry.
Their voices should be heeded as it is related to manpower
problems," he said after attending a dialog with the minister.
Muladi was referring to a stipulation in the bill that
requires national TV stations to cooperate with local stations in
order to air their programs in the regions.
This could limit public access to information at the central
level, he added.