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.