A TV watchdog has said that the decision
by state-owned TV station TVRI to broadcast two hours of the Democratic
Party's presidential convention on Sunday night breached the Broadcasting
Law.
The watchdog referred to Law No. 32/2002 on broadcasting
guidelines and broadcast program standards. Under the law, TVRI is designated
as a public broadcaster, namely a legal entity established by the state
that is expected to provide information to the public in a neutral,
independent and non-commercial way.
Roy Thaniago, director of Remotivi, a community group that monitors
Indonesian television, said that TVRI should maintain its independence
and provide equal opportunities to all political parties.
“We will gather the evidence of the violations in this case before
proceeding further,” Roy said as quoted by tempo.co on Tuesday.
He said that TVRI had previously been criticized for airing events
organized by the Golkar Party and Islamic organization Hizbut Tahrir
Indonesia (HTI).
According to Roy, the coverage of the Democratic Party convention
on Sunday was the longest political-themed program ever aired by TVRI.
He said the public station had once broadcast national meetings by Golkar and the National Mandate Party (PAN), but added that “the coverage
of each of those two events were not as long as that of the Democratic
Party's convention”.
