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n response to public complaints with regard to poor quality programs, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has demanded stronger legal measures to enable them to take action against transgressing local channels.

Speaking during a discussion with the House of Representative on Thursday, the commission said that it wanted clearer stipulations in the 2002 Broadcasting Law stating that KPI recommendations were final and binding.

The commission said that under the current law it could merely hand out light sanctions to TV stations, or at worst recommend a tougher penalty to the Communications and Information Ministry.

'€œHowever, such recommendations are not binding. The ministry often ignores such recommendations. We have the authority to give sanction but that doesn'€™t have a deterrent effect on the violators,'€ KPI deputy chairman Idy Muzayyad said.

He pointed out that the commission had handed out 266 sanctions last year, up from 184 in 2014. Violations were mostly related to unsuitable programs for children and teenagers, moral ethics and journalistic principles.

Idy said the rising number of sanctions was an illustration of the decreasing quality of TV programs and the ministry'€™s apparent lack of respect for the KPI recommendations.

A recent survey by television watchdog Remotivi recorded a number of complaints from the public related to frequent political party advertisements. The KPI'€™s 2012 broadcasting guidelines on program standards stipulate that no TV program may promote private or political interests over the public interest.

This year, the broadcasting permits held by 10 TV stations '€” RCTI, SCTV, Indosiar, TV One, Metro TV, Trans TV, Global TV and Trans7 '€” are due to expire.

Amid concerns over the exploitation of airtime, the KPI opened a public review to seek input from the public. '€œWe closed submissions for the public review on Jan. 31. We are mid-evaluation and expect to hold a meeting with the 10 [TV stations] in May,'€ Idy said.

In response to the KPI'€™s demand, the House claimed that there was not an urgent need to grant greater power to the KPI, arguing that its current authority level was sufficient.

'€œThere is no need for the KPI to have such authority. They are powerful enough with their sanctions and warnings. I would prefer that we sought other ways to make the commission more effective,'€ Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Effendi Simbolon from the House'€™s Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and information said.

He blasted the KPI'€™s initiative to hold a public review, claiming that it was pointless because the KPI itself was supposed to represent the public and thus there should be no need to seek input from the public.

Commission I deputy chairman Hanafi Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said his party appreciated the KPI'€™s public review, although it had no legal base.

He also said that the commission had yet to talk further about KPI authority and broadcasting licenses.

'€œWe may choose a mid-way solution, to grant them [the KPI and the ministry] the authority to deal with licenses and divide duties between both,'€ Hanafi said.

However, he said that the House would possibly give the KPI the authority to impose fines on those stations violating the law.