Media practitioners back restriction on political party advertisements

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Media practitioners have agreed with the General Elections Commission (KPU) to limit advertisements placed by political parties in the mass media for the sake of equal opportunity for all parties.

M. Rafiq of I-Radio, who also chairs a coalition of radio stations said an equal time slot for each party was required by the Election Law.

The law stipulates that a radio station may allot a maximum of five slots per day for each party while a TV station may allocate a maximum of 10 slots per day for a party.

Besides advertisements, Rafiq said, political parties would be allowed to place an advertorial and hold a talk show once during the campaign period.

An advertisement would last a maximum of 60 seconds, an advertorial would be aired for three minutes and a talk show would be for 30 minutes.

"The regulation only applies to non-prime time. If we allow parties to advertise during prime time, many parties would not have the chance to air their advertisements due to the limited time available," he said.

If the present 46 parties pass the final registration stage with the KPU, there will be nearly four hours of party advertisements per day on radio.

Other participants in the KPU workshop on the election campaign in the mass media were Irwan Hidayat of the Jakarta Private Radio Network Association (PRSSNI Jakarta), M Kabul Budiono of Indonesian Republic Radio (RRI), Dedi Supriadi (Delta- Female Indonesia network), Fachry Mohammad of Smart FM network, Widyananto of U FM and Adid of Prambors.

Ishadi S.K. of the Indonesian Television Association, who also spoke in the workshop, said the restriction on party advertising in the mass media was necessary to give all political parties equal opportunity to air their programs.

"This will prevent domination by big political parties," he said.

Besides, he said, TV stations were also prepared to allot free advertising slots to parties, but these must also be distributed fairly.

Meanwhile, Djafar H. Assegaff of Media Indonesia, said it would be difficult for the print media to allot a special column or space for parties, unless the KPU paid for the space in advance and later on distributed it transparently.

Rafiq, Ishadi and Djafar agreed that political parties intending to place advertisements in mass media should pay in advance.

Rafiq suggested that radio stations be given the right to cut or drop any advertisements that violated the Election Law.

KPU presented earlier this month a draft instruction on the election campaign mechanism that requires electoral candidates to consult the commission on the type and number of advertisements they will place in the mass media.

It stated that an advertising slot allotted to one candidate could not be given to another candidate.

Besides advertisements, each electoral candidate is given a chance to air recorded speeches through radio and television stations.