TVRI coverage of Dems convention criticized

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.

'€œWe 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 '€œthe coverage of each of those two events were not as long as that of the Democratic Party's convention'€.