Parties banned from funding noncampaign media programs
Title -- 4315 INDONESIA: Parties banned from funding noncampaign media programs
Date -- 21 February 2004
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- The Jakarta Post, via John M Miller, fbp@igc.org 20/2/04
Copyright -- JP
Status -- Unabridged
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PARTIES BANNED FROM FINANCING NONCAMPAIGN PROGRAMS IN MEDIA
By Moch. N. Kurniawan
JAKARTA (Jakarta Post/Pacific Media Watch): The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and the General Elections Commission (KPU) agreed on Wednesday to prohibit political parties and regional representative candidates from financing informational, educational or entertainment programs in the electronic media.
Both commissions agreed that, in line with the elections law, candidates should be given equal opportunities to campaign, and therefore should not be allowed to use noncampaign programs as a forum for campaigning.
Yet, the electronic media cannot be barred from running news programs on political parties or regional representative candidates.
According to the agreement signed by the commissions here on Thursday, both radio and TV stations will be allowed to air election education programs. Stations will be required to air information on polling methods and the polling period.
Also allowed to be included in the educational programs are interactive
dialogs, speeches and debates
TV stations will be allowed to air parties' electoral campaigns in paid
advertisements, with parties allowed a maximum of 10 30-second spots a day.
Radio
stations will be allowed to air a maximum of 10 spots a day per party, with
each spot allowed to run for a maximum of 60 seconds.
Besides the advertisements, TV and radio stations are required to allot
free-of-charge campaign spots once during the campaign period, which is
from March
11 to April 1.
The agreement carries only administrative sanctions for any violations of the
rulings.
KPI chairman Victor Menayang said his organization could impose harsher
sanctions such as broadcast bans for any radio or TV stations violating the
agreement.
"This agreement aims at encouraging electronic media to keep a distance from
those contesting the election and protect the independence of the electronic
media," he said.
Political analyst Rizal Mallarangeng has predicted the electronic media could
receive up to 40 percent of the campaign funds of political parties and
regional representative candidates.
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