Indonesia seems safer on television news

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia looked a lot safer yesterday.

That was the general impression received yesterday when monitoring news on the five private TV stations, the public's chief sources of information on the protests and riots that have rocked the country these past few weeks.

But it may have been deceiving.

Life in Jakarta may have been slowly returning to normal yesterday, but riots continued in various towns in Indonesia.

These were not reported, or were barely mentioned in news programs screened by the five commercial networks yesterday, a sharp contrast to the barrage of reports on riots seen on previous days.

The networks -- RCTI, SCTV, TPI, Indosiar, ANteve -- won accolades from the public for their bold and up-to-date coverage of the past week's riots in Jakarta, and the aftermath of the shooting of students at Trisakti University.

The stations ran constant updates on the hour almost at every hour. With more time allocated, they were often ahead of CNN and they gave the Indonesian perspective on these events.

When contacted about the sudden change, news executives of most private stations declined to comment.

Yesterday also marked the beginning of a "TV Pool" news involving the five private stations and state-run TVRI.

It was not immediately clear whether this was a coincidence, but starting yesterday, commercial networks are obliged to air TVRI news at the state-run station's time slots.

The networks yesterday broadcast the "TV Pool" news, at 6 a.m. to 6.30 a.m. and at 2 p.m. to and 2.30 p.m. This is in addition to the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. daily TVRI news.

The networks continued with their news programs yesterday, but the tone had changed from that widely seen on previous days.

Dedy Pristiwanto, editor in chief of Indosiar's Focus news program, declined to explain the sudden change.

Dedy acknowledged that all private stations had agreed to relay news produced jointly by the "TV Pool" under TVRI's coordination.

He added that this was a temporary arrangement until the political situation settled.

"Each private network has contributed three staff members to work in the pool. News produced is controlled by TVRI," he said.

Indosiar will continue producing Focus, he said.

"I think our coverage of the riots on Thursday and Friday were objective and not excessive," he said.

Chris Kelana, director of RCTI's news program Seputar Indonesia, also refused to answer questions about the change.

"Seputar Indonesia goes on and will cover political events, including student rallies, looting and riots," he said.

Besides Indosiar and RCTI, other private TV stations ANteve, TPI and SCTV also have their own news programs. (rms)