T

he Constitutional Court has dropped two articles in the 2008 election law that regulate the amount of political advertising allowed across all types of media.

Presiding over the final hearing of the judicial review, court chief Moh. Mahfud MD said articles 98 and 99 were in violation of article 28 of the 1945 Constitution on freedom of expression, and therefore must be annulled.

"The articles have also led to legal uncertainty and unfairness practice in society," he said to state news agency Antara.

Article 99 stipulates that all media outlets must provide an equal amount of advertising space to all legislative and presidential candidates.

Article 98 states that any media organization found to be in violation of the election law would face sanctioning by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission and potentially have their publishing license revoked.

"On the one hand it is stated that either the press council or the KPI may punish the media, while on the other the 1999 press law states neither body has the authority to in fact carry out such action," he said, highlighting the legal ambiguity of the article.

The request for the judicial review was submitted by a group of chief editors from eight local print media bodies: Harian Terbit, Sinar Harapan, Suara Merdeka, Rakyat Merdeka, Media Bangsa, Koran Jakarta, Warta Kota and Cek & Ricek.

A spokesperson for the group of editors, Tarman Azzam, praised the presiding judges for "making the right decision" while adding that the election process should not jeopardize press freedom.

"The verdict shows the judges' progressive mind set. And with this decision, the General Elections Commission can no longer threaten press freedom. They don't have any right to do so," he said.

The legislative election is scheduled for April 9 while the presidential election is booked for July 8.

Many observers have previously labeled the election law draconian and repressive as it reintroduced the control measures former president Soeharto held over press editors.

They said Article 99, which stipulates that the Press Council will withdraw the publishing license of any media organization failing to publish fair and balanced reports on political parties, was ridiculous given the fact that 38 parties would be contesting the elections over a nine-month period.