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TV stations must remain neutral during election: Bawaslu

Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) commissioner Nasrullah has asked broadcastersto maintain neutrality when running stories regarding the two presidentialpairs, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and Prabowo Subianto-HattaRajasa

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta

Sat, May 31, 2014 Published on May. 31, 2014 Published on 2014-05-31T14:04:52+07:00

TV stations must remain neutral during election: Bawaslu

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lections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) commissioner Nasrullah has asked broadcastersto maintain neutrality when running stories regarding the two presidentialpairs, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and Prabowo Subianto-HattaRajasa.

Among the indications of fairness was providing exactly the same slots for the candidates on their daily news programs, tempo.co reported on Friday.

"We also urge them to educate viewers and avoid airing smear campaigns," he said.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) member Fajar Arifianto Isnugroho said that they would join forces with the Press Council (Dewan Pers) to impose administrative sanctions on any television station that did not give balanced accounts of both political pairs.

Media outlets like TV One, AnTV and Metro TV have faced criticism for their unbalanced coverage due to the involvement of media moguls in politics. Surya Paloh, who owns Metro TV has pledged allegiance to the Jokowi-Kalla camp while Aburizal Bakrie who owns TV One and AnTV supports Prabowo. (fss/dic)