Media practitioners back restriction on political party advertisements
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.