'TVRI's role and status in terminal decline: Expert

'TVRI's role and status in terminal decline: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned television station TVRI's role and
status in Indonesian society is in free fall, television observer
William Atkins from Australia said last week.

"If you look at TVRI, in terms of the ratings, it is not a
popular channel. The entertainment offered by RCTI, or Indosiar,
or SCTV, is far more popular," Atkins said.

Atkins, a postgraduate researcher at the Department of
Government of the University of Sydney, was in town last week to
attend a seminar on press freedom in Asia.

However, he acknowledged the importance of TVRI as the sole
provider of news for commercial networks in Indonesia, which are
required by the government to relay its news bulletins.

"But apart from this, it's difficult for TVRI to maintain its
role and its influence with the public," said the author of
Satellite Television and State Power in Southeast Asia: New
Issues of Discourse and Control.

He said that the state television provides information on
events as the Indonesian government sees fit to tell the public.

"Based on other countries experiences, if we deny evolution,
the growth of information, people will become cynical and won't
believe what the state broadcast tells them," Atkins said.

He suggested that TVRI balance, improve and compete with
commercial networks to become trustworthy information providers.

TVRI is funded by license fees and government grants and more
recently, a share of the advertising revenues of the five
commercial broadcasters which have been set up in the past six
years.

Atkins praised the government's announcement in February 1993
to allow commercial stations to broadcast their own news service
by the end of the year as a move toward openness.

Unfortunately, he said, in the climate of greater government
control of news reflected by the banning of three high profile
magazines, the initiative has gone into limbo. "There's quite an
ambiguous message," Atkins said.

He said that there is an attempt to make news service a part
of government "information", rather than allowing alternative
news to develop in line with the broader communication
development of the commercial sector.

"In this situation, people will turn to other organizations
such as the BBC, Australian television or CNN," Atkins said.

The decline of TVRI has coincided with the rise of the
commercial broadcasting sector, he said. "However, the five
networks maintain close relation with the government, functioning
according to informal guidelines rather than principles enshrined
in a broadcasting act," Atkins said.

"The commercial players are 'largely controlled by the state,
and have been established in a way that makes them a compliant
adjunct to the political and cultural objectives of the
government'," Atkins quoted Philip Kitely, who wrote a book
called Fine Tuning Control: Commercial Television in Indonesia.

Wimar Witoelar, a political observer and popular former talk
show host, said that TVRI cannot be blamed for becoming the
government's propaganda tool.

"Television is an extension of the government's power. TVRI is
the legitimate tool of government propaganda. People can't blame
TVRI for being the voice of the government because that's what it
was designed for," Wimar said.

Wimar's talk show Perspektif on private television station
SCTV was banned last year, reportedly because it was often
critical of the government.

"Private television networks are also an extension of the
government, not in the broadcasting sense alone, but in the
relationship of the owners to the power structure," he added.

Television stations are the victims of pressure from the power
holders, to maintain their positions and the status quo, Wimar
said.

He suggested commercial networks should not be preoccupied
with what the government wants and just concentrate on building
up their own expertise. (31)