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s the Jakarta gubernatorial election draws closer, the country’s press council is calling on the mass media to remain impartial in covering the poll.

“Media outlets must not support particular candidates,” Press Council member Agus Sudibyo said at a discussion in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Sunday.

According to Agus, the media has played an important role in shaping public opinion over the last seven years. Therefore, the media should use its power to help people to choose the best candidate but in carrying out their function, the media should maintain their journalistic ethics, he said.

“The media can provide information on candidates by describing the track records of each candidate fairly and equally,” he said. The public can then decide for themselves which candidate they preferred, based on equal and balanced news coverage, he explained.

In short, he said, the media should separate political campaigning from news, admitting that many political campaigns had become entwined with news in various media outlets.

The media could express their opinions but only in their editorials, he said. “In the editorial views, the media has the right to express their opinions of respective gubernatorial candidate’s views.”

The Jakarta General Election Commission has approved six candidates to run for the capital’s top job, including two independent candidates, Faisal Basri and Hendardji Supandji.

The rest are candidates backed by political parties. They include Alex Noerdin, who was nominated by the Golkar Party, whose chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, is linked to a major media company.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta branch chairman Umar Idris, who was also present at Sunday’s discussion, said that his organization would monitor news coverage in various media outlets during the gubernatorial election. “We will monitor the media’s independence in reporting the Jakarta elections,” Umar said.

AJI will cooperate with media analysts in its research, which will last until a few days before polling day on July 11. “Every two weeks, AJI will publish the results of its research,” Umar said, adding that the results would be sent to the Press Council and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

Media observer IgnatiusHaryanto said that his research would be based on points that were already stipulated in the KPI’s Broadcasting Guidelines (Pedoman Perilaku Penyiaran) drawn up in 2012.

“For instance, every gubernatorial candidate pair should receive equal coverage in news coverage,” he said, referring to article 50 (2) of the guidelines.

The guidelines also rule that each media outlet should be independent and neutral in covering various issues, including the election.

Any media outlet that violated the regulations could receive administrative sanctions leading to closure. “The Press Council and KPI can punish media outlets that violate the regulations,” Ignatius said.

According to Agus, AJI’s decision to monitor news coverage from the early stages of the election process the was correct one.

He said that many media research institutions were too late in monitoring coverage during elections because they conducted research during the silent week of the campaign.

“We can detect any candidate who starts campaigning before his rightful time through early research,” he said. (riz)