Radio, pay-TV to resume 24-hour broadcasts
Radio, pay-TV to resume 24-hour broadcasts
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has revised a controversial decree cutting back
the airtime for broadcasters to allow radio and pay-TV stations
to resume broadcasting 24 hours a day.
Local TV stations, however, are still required to go off the
air from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., according to the decree signed by
Minister of Information and Communications Sofyan Djalil on
Friday.
The Ministry of Information and Communications issued Decree
No. 11/2005 last month obliging all broadcast stations to go off
the air from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., in a bid to save energy amid
soaring oil prices that have greatly inflated the government fuel
subsidy.
Radio stations are now allowed to broadcast 24 hours a day
because they use less energy than TV stations, while pay-TV
stations have been exempted from the limited broadcast times
because customers are paying for 24-hour service.
The decree has drawn strong criticism from a number of
different parties, with critics calling the decree government
intervention in the public's freedom and right to information.
The new decree, No. 12/2005, stipulates that local TV stations
will be allowed to stay on the air 24 hours a day in the event of
emergency situations, such as natural disasters.
In addition, the new decree also allows local TV stations to
air live broadcasts from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. if the stations signed
a contract with a third party before the decree was issued.
The new decree will be effective for five months and is
subject to revision based on further developments in the
country's energy crisis.
The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) said the decree
violated the independence of the media.
It said the decree could be viewed as a return of the
repressive measures of the New Order regime, when the information
ministry was authorized to intervene in the operation of the
media.
The KPI said the government should have simply called on
broadcast stations to minimize energy consumption, while leaving
the details up to the stations themselves.