Media revels in fiesta of democracy

JAKARTA (JP): With the race to lure voters in this year's general election officially kicking off on Wednesday, another fervent rivalry takes place on the sideline contesting the mass media covering the event.

As an example, the respected daily Kompas, has dedicated four pages every day to the election process over the past two weeks. With nearly 90 reporters, photographers and researchers, the country's largest circulating newspaper fills the four pages with a wide range of items, including results of its straw polls.

Private stations SCTV and RCTI, offer almost an identical package comprising election journals, breaking news, live broadcasts and teleconferences plus a day-by-day report of returns. Both are fielding a huge team, numbering up to 100 crew members each.

"It has been our tradition to cover a major event in a special package. There are a record 48 parties contesting the elections, which for the first time since 32 years are arranged by non- governmental institutions," SCTV news director Riza Primadi said recently.

The station's election coverage, starting from May 14 through June 14, takes most of the portion of its Liputan 6 news program which is aired three times a day. Each program lasts one hour.

Riza said SCTV built three mini studios in Medan, Yogyakarta and Surabaya, from which live shows outside Jakarta will be broadcast.

Unlike SCTV, the country's leading private TV channel, RCTI, has leased two rooms at the Wisata Hotel in Central Jakarta for its home base until after the balloting day. A mini studio, from which election journals and live shows will be broadcast, will start operating on Friday until June 11. Each journal will shave half an hour off its daily news program which is aired midday, evening and midnight.

Apart from election journals, a two-minute election news clip will be inserted in its hourly breaking news every day.

Producer of RCTI election coverage, Edy Sucipto, said on Wednesday the station deployed a 150 member team in Jakarta alone. He said his team would update the ballot counting every two hours each day starting from June 7.

"Apart from Jakarta, we will specifically monitor the ballot counting in troubled provinces of Aceh and East Timor plus Surabaya, which represents the urban community," Edy said.

Edy said the special coverage had so far attracted advertisements worth Rp 1.5 billion (US$187,500), although the coverage is not classified as a special issue to invite sponsors.

"It just a matter of good ratings. Everybody is now absorbed in the elections," Edy said.

While rivals compete with each other, Indosiar, the country's youngest channel, opts for a low profile. Its spokesman, Gufroni Sakaril, said Wednesday the station formed a smaller team of 23 reporters and 26 cameramen who would cover mostly Jakarta and its surrounding areas.

"We don't place our crew outside Jakarta, except for an extraordinary event which needs deep coverage. But the dispatch of a team is restricted to towns in which we have built a transmitter," Gufroni said.

The election report will be broadcast during its news program called Fokus, which is aired twice a day. "Around 60 percent of Fokus will be allotted for election news," Gufroni said.

He said that in line with its commitment to balance coverage, Indosiar allocated each political party 30 minutes to socialize with the public. The program, called Demokrasi 99 started on Wednesday.

The station has also aired an interactive program called Jurdil 99 every Saturday night since April 10. It features an election-related talk show and a question and answer session with audiences via telephone.

All the crew members of the three TV channels are protected with insurance during their term of duties.

"Who knows what will happen to them on the field," SCTV director Riza said.

The general election, touted as the most democratic one in the country in the past three decades, puts Indonesia under world scrutiny. Foreign media will represent the international community's presence to watch the event.

Noted worldwide news agency Reuters is fielding about 30 television crew, photographers and journalists to cover the election process here.

With 48 parties contesting, the news agency will focus on political and economic issues dealing with several influential and big parties, Jonathan Thatcher, Reuters bureau chief here said.

"I saw the campaign at Merdeka square (on Wednesday). Well, I think many people hope for the poll process to be a fair and peaceful one. But we don't know what will happen tomorrow, do we?" he said.

Some of the crew stay at hotels close to the office's base on Jl. Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta, such as Aryaduta and Mandarin.

"Our crew will also travel around the country. Let's hope we'll have great coverage," Thatcher said.

Another foreign media, BBC World Service, is revamping its Indonesian web site to make extra news bulletins available in real audio.

The redesigned site, which was launched on Wednesday, increases the broadcasts available from 30 minutes to two hours. The two main hour-long programs, including a newly introduced 15- minute election special, broadcasts from 13.45 to 14.00 GMT and will be accessible on the web straight after they are broadcasted on air.

The new site is available at www.bbc.co.uk/indonesian.

Kompas set up a big team to anticipate the large news coverage, one of its reporters, Pepih Nugraha, said.

"We have 44 reporters in Jakarta plus 44 more from regions across the country," he said, adding that the team combined reporters from different beats.

"We aim to give our readers a complete, comprehensive and unique coverage," he said.

As for Suara Pembaruan, the evening daily, the election coverage involves all its reporters and correspondents.

"So, apart from special pages dedicated for election news, we have election-related news in every section of our daily," the daily's political desk editor, Sabar Subekti, said.

Both Kompas and Suara Pembaruan do not provide their reporters with a base camp outside their respective offices.

English newspaper, the Indonesian Observer, picked only five reporters and two photographers to cover the "fiesta of democracy" in Jakarta.

"We work as a small team," Observer's Bambang Murbianto, said. (edt/amd)