Media cross-ownership to be limited

Media cross-ownership to be limited

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lending a deaf ear to demands from major media owners, the
government and House of Representative agreed on Wednesday in the
broadcasting bill to limit media cross-ownership.

They argued that such a limitation was necessary to prevent a
monopoly of opinion by major media groups.

However, critics said that the limitation would serve as an
entry barrier to a television industry already dominated by the
family of former president Soeharto and its cronies.

State Minister for Information and Telecommunications Syamsul
Mu'arif said on Wednesday the proposed bill would find a
compromise to accommodate the demands from opposing groups on
media ownerships.

"We have to prevent the possibility that certain media groups
might dominate public opinion as that would be damaging to
democracy in the country," Syamsul contended.

The decision quickly received criticism from the media
community, that the cross-ownership limitation would demolish
print media businesses.

Coordinator of the Press Society Leo Batubara pointed out that
the limitation in the new bill would only serve as a barrier for
media groupings to establish TV stations to counter Soeharto's
empire.

He also said that arguments about a monopoly in opinion-
forming could no longer apply to Indonesia as it had already
entered a democratic era.

The antimonopoly law stated that only media that could
dominate 50 percent of the market could be considered as holding
a monopoly and none of the media in Indonesia was able to do
that, Leo said.

"The government should have considered a measure to limit the
monopoly of the existing private TV stations by certain groups
rather than killing print media businesses," Leo told The Jakarta
Post.

Leo was alluding to the fact that at least four of nine
existing private TV stations -- RCTI, SCTV, TPI, Metro TV -- are
partly owned by former president Soeharto's family.

Despite the criticism, Syamsul said the move aimed to open
business opportunities to other media groupings.

Besides, he said, the government and the House were seeking
the right model for implementing cross-ownership limitations,
including a possible ban on nationwide TV transmissions.

"We are thinking of banning nationwide broadcasts by single TV
stations to allow for the establishment of local TVs in each area
or province," he said.

If this model were adopted, Syamsul said, TV stations could
broadcast nationally only by cooperation with local TV stations
or by setting up different TV stations in a number of provinces.

Another model would be to allow one print media company to own
one TV station.

But a media group that owned more than one print media would
not be allowed to have a TV station, he said.

Leo, however, disagreed, saying that the only way for print
media to survive was through cooperation with the electronic
media.

"If the government limits the opportunities for media
companies to own TV stations, it will kill off development of the
print media," Leo said.

Media ownership is one of the contentious issues arising in
deliberations on the broadcasting bill, which have been ongoing
for the past two years, as most in the media community support
cross-ownership.

The media community still has time to campaign against what it
has called a "draconian" broadcasting bill, as deliberations on
the bill at the House are scheduled to be endorsed on July 14, as
originally planned.