Ministry of Human Rights to examine protection of conventional media from social media

Jakarta - The Ministry of Human Rights is examining measures to protect the sustainability of mainstream media amid the increasing dominance of social media in the public information ecosystem.

Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai stated that the government must understand the various challenges facing conventional media, including shifts in public information consumption patterns towards digital platforms.

“Why are mainstream media outlets losing to social media? Is there special treatment given to social media that is causing conventional media to collapse?” Pigai said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said the government would hold discussions with the Press Council to directly hear the various problems faced by the mainstream media industry, including business sustainability issues and competition challenges from digital platforms.

“Now the human rights of the media sector are already beginning to be compromised. We will discuss this by inviting the Press Council to hear what problems are actually being faced,” he said.

According to Pigai, the results of these discussions will inform policy development aimed at maintaining the sustainability of the media ecosystem while ensuring media can continue to fulfil its public function.

“In regulations, in the human rights law that will be produced by us together with the Indonesian Parliament this year, we can present measures to ensure the media sector remains protected,” he said.

He added that the policy is expected to protect conventional media from the increasingly strong pressure of social media penetration in information distribution.

“Later, government regulations and ministerial regulations can also be presented to protect the media sector, especially conventional media, so it is not eroded by the threat of social media penetration,” said Pigai.

Pigai believes that the existence of mainstream media remains important in maintaining the quality of public information because it has an educational function, oversight capacity, and conveys public aspirations in a democratic system.