Opposition grows against decree on TV airtime cut

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although most TV stations have agreed to implement a ruling which requires them to reduce airtime as part of the government's energy conservation drive, concerned parties intensified pressure on Saturday to withdraw the controversial ruling.

They said that the ministerial decree on a reduction in TV airtime issued by the Office of the State Minister of Information and Communications was a restriction to press freedom.

"The ruling is seen as an experiment by the government to curb freedom of the press," mass media observer Hinca Panjaitan said at a seminar on the issue.

He said that the government was apparently trying to turn back the clock to the old days under the New Order regime, which imposed a tight control on the press, thus constituting a serious threat to the hard-earned press freedom here.

The mass media here has enjoyed the freedom to deliver news stories without fear of being shut down by the authorities following the resignation of president Soeharto.

The Office of the State Minister of Information and Communications issued a weeks ago Ministerial Decree No. 11/2005, ordering all broadcasting stations to cut their airtime in a bid to conserve the use of energy in the country.

The ministerial decree, which will be in effect for six months, requires all TV and radio stations to sign off from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. However, all live league soccer matches contracted between Indonesian television stations and foreign parties are exempted.

Many TV and radio stations had been operating 24 hours a day.

Hinca said that the decree must be revoked because it was against Press Law No. 40/1999.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) had also previously protested the decree, saying that such an instruction could be viewed as an effort to meddle in the country's independent broadcasting industry.

It added that according to Law No. 32/2002 on broadcasting, the government has no authority to intervene in broadcasting stations as it was not permitted to restrict the public's right to information.

Customers of cable TV operators have also protested the cutbacks.

The controversial decree was a follow-up of the presidential instruction on a nationwide campaign for energy conservation as the government is struggling to cover the soaring fuel subsidy amid rising international oil prices and surging energy consumption at home.

So far, the government is resorting to the energy conservation campaign to keep the subsidy affordable, rather than taking the politically sensitive measure of cutting back the ballooning fuel subsidy and raising fuel prices.