Parties violate ad rules

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) reported on Thursday to the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) 39 violations allegedly committed by political parties in broadcast media advertisements between March 11 and March 15.

Agus Sudibyo, an ISAI researcher, said 26 violations were due to advertisements exceeding the maximum duration of 30 seconds.

Golkar, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Concern for the Nation Functional Party (PKPB) had breached the ruling, he said at a news conference.

The remaining 13 violations comprised ads exceeding the maximum 10 placements per party per day and were reportedly committed by the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) and the PKPB, he added.

The parties had allegedly violated Article 20 (1) of the joint instruction of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

Yet there is no ruling to disqualify political parties that violate the rules regarding advertisements.

Garin Nugroho of the Media Coalition for the Elections said his team would send a letter to the concerned political parties and television stations to advise them stop violating advertisement rulings.

Separately, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) deputy coordinator Lucky Djani alleged that Prabowo Subianto, a Golkar presidential candidate hopeful, had also violated the ruling on the maximum duration of advertisements.

Prabowo's ad apparently runs for about two-and-a-half minutes, well over the 30 second maximum.

Prabowo's ad was aired on RCTI, SCTV and Indosiar television stations, he said.

Political parties' radio campaigns have not been monitored. Radio ads are not to be more than 60 seconds in duration.

Lucky added that the PDI-P, led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, had spent the most money on campaigning in print and broadcast media in the first week of the campaign period from March 11 to 17.

He said the PDI-P had spent Rp 1.89 billion (US$225,000) on campaigning in newspapers, radio and television. Golkar and PAN had spend the next most with Rp 644 million and Rp 437.9 million respectively.

Lucky said the figures were estimated based on price lists in the mass media.

The data was compiled from national newspapers, regional media, radio stations and television stations in Lampung, Jakarta, Surabaya (East Java), Samarinda (East Kalimantan), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara) and Makassar (South Sulawesi).