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Management shakeup raises questions about TVRI's public broadcast role
TVRI president director Helmy Yahya's dismissal has a silver lining in that it shows that the public cares about the public broadcaster.
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Public broadcaster TVRI has been in troubled waters since the fall of the New Order regime in 1998. A slew of TV stations and cable TV channels have provided intense competition, while TVRI suffered a bureaucratic and bloated work process. (The Jakarta Post/R. Bertho Wedhatama)
T
he abrupt dismissal of TVRI president director Helmy Yahya has once again put the spotlight on the public television broadcaster, which has been struggling to stay relevant since the television industry was liberalized in the 1990s.
Helmy, a former television personality, was appointed TVRI's president director in November 2017 for a five-year term. His time was cut short when TVRI's supervisory board fired him last week.
In a press conference on his dismissal last week, Helmy said state-owned TVRI had been in a precarious situation when he became its president director.
"Our [rating] share was 1 percent, our logo was considered old-fashioned, our equipment was damaged and our human resources and corporate culture was not very good," he said. "By the end of my leadership, our [rating share] had doubled."
Helmy also cited his securing of a license to broadcast the popular English Premier League's soccer matches as an example of his good performance.
Supervisory board chairman Arief Yahya, however, claimed in a meeting with House of Representatives Commission I on Tuesday that the airing of the Premier League was not in line with the nation's identity could potentially lead to financial difficulties for the broadcaster.
“Our priority is to educate, give a sense of identity and be the media that unites the nation," Arief told lawmakers, "Those are our priorities. But in reality, we're watching Premier League matches."
