New broadcast bill kills press freedom

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.