edia conglomerate Transmedia Group has said that its companies have no affiliations to any political organizations and have remained impartial in covering the 2019 presidential election.
The group issued the statement in response to an article published in Wednesday’s edition of The Jakarta Post titled "Media moguls ‘no guarantee of success' for Jokowi camp", in which the newspaper suggested that Chairul Tanjung — founder and chairman of CT Corp, which owns Transmedia Group — was supporting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in next year’s election.
"Members of the group, including TransTV, Trans7, Detik.com and CNN Indonesia, are not supporters of any political organization nor their candidates, both for the legislative and presidential election," Transmedia said in a statement to the Post on Wednesday.
"To state otherwise, exactly the way the above-mentioned article has suggested, undermines our stance to impartial journalism and efforts made by each and every individual inside and outside of the newsrooms striving for journalism independence."
Chairul was named by members of the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin coalition one of the frontrunners to head the pair’s campaign, before fellow tycoon Erick Thohir was eventually confirmed as team chairman.
“[Both Chairul and Erick] represent the young voters and have a good [avenue of] communication with all political party leaders,” United Development Party (PPP) chairman M. Romahurmuziy told reporters last week.
NasDem executive Taufiqulhadi has also said that Chairul would join the economic team of Jokowi campaign.
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