New broadcast bill kills press freedom

Abdullah Alamudi, Instructor, Dr. Soetomo Press Institute, Jakarta

Indonesia's newly won press freedom is now in limbo as the broadcast bill -- nearly at its final reading at the House of Representatives -- will prevent local radio and TV stations from relaying foreign-made news, thus curbing the public's right to information.

The provision of the bill turns the clock back nearly 40 years to 1964 when President Sukarno, during the height of Indonesia's confrontation with Malaysia, banned the public from listening to foreign broadcasts.

A member of the Indonesian Broadcast Society (MPI) describes the bill as "more fascist than the occupying Japanese military's regulations".

Article 27 (2) of the bill states: "The relay of broadcasts which are used as permanent programs, both of domestic origin as well as from abroad, are limited".

An explanatory note of the article says: "What is meant by limited in article 27 (2) is that domestic broadcasting institutions may relay programs from foreign countries except news, music programs whose performances are improper and sports programs that display sadism."

If the bill is passed with the provisions, it clearly will violate article XIX of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees the right of every human being to seek for, to receive and to convey information.

It also contradicts Articles 4 and 5 of the Press Law No. 40/1999, since banning private television stations and radio stations from broadcasting news from foreign stations amounts to censorship.

Article 4 of the Press Law states that there should be no censorship, closing down or banning of broadcasts from the national press.

Article 5 (1) stipulates: "The national press is obliged to report news and opinions respecting religious norms and the public's sense of moral values and the presumption of innocence."

Since Article 27 of the broadcast bill violates Article XIX of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, it is only fair for all democracy-loving nations of the world to exert some kind of pressure on the Indonesian government to immediately back off from such repressive laws.

Indonesian donor countries in particular should review their positions as far as providing economic and military assistance to the government if the bill is passed.

If the Indonesian media -- both print and electronic -- fail to unite now, and right now, and show their solidarity against the provision of Article 27 of the bill, they will soon be witnessing the process of the large scale deception of the people.

In addition, the Indonesian press will never become the fourth estate in this country because they will be a party to the deception process.

Point 2 of Article 27 of the bill was added at the Working Committee (Panja) meeting on August 24, amending the result of the Panja the day before.

Panja comprises House members, representatives of the government, radio and television station associations, broadcasting societies and NGO's.

At the August 23, Panja meeting, a certain participant accused some local radio stations of becoming "the kiosks" of foreign broadcasting organizations. He did not name the stations but a number of private local radio stations relay or rebroadcast news and music programs from abroad through their networks across the nation.

They mostly rebroadcast news from the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC), The Voice of America (VOA), and ABC/Radio Australia. The same three stations were among the foreign broadcasting institutions that Indonesians were banned from listening to under Sukarno, President Megawati's father.

Apart from state-owned radio stations RRI there are now more than 1,100 privately-owned radio stations in the country, a jump from 740 in 1997 at the end of Soeharto's 32-year rule. Between then and now the number of privately-owned television stations also increased to 10 from five, besides state-owned TVRI. Privately-owned provincial TV stations, which were undreamed of during the Soeharto era, now total 15 and the numbers are increasing following the enactment of regional autonomy.

The bill is now in the hands of the formulating team (Timus) who will present their work to the special committee (Pansus) before parliament puts its final stamp on it during a plenary session on September 29.

The existing formal organizational and regulatory structure of the Indonesian bureaucracy has already make it hard enough for the media to report and broadcast the news without the presence of Article 27.

There are at least 35 articles in the Penal Code, including draconian articles 154, 155, 156 and 157 that can be used against the media and journalists. The last four articles, a.k.a. hartzaai-artikelen (spreading hatred), were introduced by the Dutch colonialists in 1915 to stop the press from promoting any ideas of a free and independent Indonesia. The articles, however, were found nowhere in the Dutch Penal Code despite the fact that the Indonesian Penal Code was copied from the Dutch.

The Press Council says other laws they consider hamper press freedom in Indonesian, include the laws on companies, the protection of consumers, antimonopoly, bankruptcy, archives, copyright and the forthcoming state emergency law and the law on state secrets.