KPU must regulate media campaigning

JAKARTA: Independent media watchdogs called on the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Sunday to immediately draw up a clear-cut regulation that would sanction campaigning in the media ahead of the Sept. 20 election runoff.

The Institute for the Study of the Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and the Media Coalition for Free and Fair Elections said that the absence or tardy formulation of such a regulation would cause a serious problem to the media.

"Ads for the election runoff must have been prepared by the candidates' campaign teams three or four months before. However, the KPU has yet to issue the campaign regulation," Agus Sudibyo of ISAI said in a meeting with members of the General Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu). -- JP