I

n light of numerous warning letters sent to national television stations, which it says have fallen on deaf ears, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has requested that the House of Representatives amend the Broadcasting Law to give the body authority to closely monitor TV programs.

KPI commissioner Amiruddin said the KPI wanted the authority to oversee the content of all television programs, including the power to censor content before it was aired.

'€œHouse Commission I has given us the space to provide input to them regarding KPI'€™s authority. What we have proposed has been received and is now being discussed,'€ Amiruddin said, adding that the House of Representatives was enthusiastic about strengthening the KPI.

'€œWith the authority to supervise the content of programs, KPI will be able to monitor programs before they are aired to prevent any inappropriate content,'€ he said after a public discussion on television broadcasting on Tuesday.

Under the current Broadcasting Law, the KPI does not have the authority to monitor television programs before they are aired.

Asked about supervision for live TV programs, Amiruddin said the mechanism would be different from pre-recorded ones.

'€œFor live programs, we will see their Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs), what the programs are going to talk about and their duration,'€ Amiruddin told The Jakarta Post.

Asked about the KPI'€™s proposal, Head of Corporate Secretary of RCTI, a private TV station, Tony Andrianto, said he would wait for the results of bill deliberations.

'€œIf there is no opposition to the passage of the broadcasting bill in the future, we will comply with it. But, I believe there will be opposition from people working in [television] production that could prevent the bill from being passed into law,'€ Tony said.

He added that the existing Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Broadcasting Program Standards provided sufficient guidelines for broadcasters.

Executive Producer of ANTV, Hannibal Wijayanto, said KPI'€™s warning letter had not been ignored by TV stations.

'€œWe do quality control before we broadcast programs. KPI should just oversee what we have aired and then issue a warning letter [if the content is not appropriate]. That is frightening enough for us,'€ Hannibal said.

He added that rather than censoring inappropriate programs before they were aired, the KPI should only impose sanctions on broadcasters after programs were broadcast.

Metro TV chief editor Putra Nababan shared a similar opinion.

'€œWe are responsible for our programs. We will not run anywhere if KPI wants to evaluate us,'€ said Putra, adding that the bill should not limit the creativity of TV stations. (wnd)