Jakarta – As political parties prepare for the 2014 general elections, many have started to project their presence through advertisements running in the media, raising suspicions that some parties with media ties could influence news in untransparent ways.
Owned by political party front men, Metro TV and MNC-linked TV stations have been airing Nasdem Party advertisements, while TV One also aired several commercials promoting Golkar Party chairman Aburizal "Ical" Bakrie, who has been named the party's official candidate in the upcoming presidential race.
University of Indonesia communications expert Ade Armando told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that there was no problem in the strong relationship between political parties and media, arguing that such practices had been prevalent in Indonesia in the 1960s.
"[The affiliation between mass media and political parties] only becomes problematic when the politician-cum-media entrepreneur forces its political agenda on the journalists who work at his media company," Ade said.
"This may happen in the general elections, when the mass media could be utilized by their owners to attack political rivals."
Ade explained that "politically dictated" reporting was apparent when the Lapindo mudflow issue rocked Indonesia in 2006. He cited that while common news media referred to the mudflow as the Lapindo mudflow, Bakrie-owned TV One news station referred to the disaster as the Sidoardjo mudflow. Ical and his Bakrie business group partly owned PT Lapindo Brantas, the company that was at the center of the disaster.
Ties between media companies and political parties have become clearer in the past few months. The entry of media czar Hary Tanoesoedibjo into the public concerns over the neutrality of journalists working in his company.
The official installment of Hary as the Nasdem Party's board of experts chairman on Wednesday was the latest example of politics-affiliated media in Indonesia.
Prior to Hary's arrival, the Nasdem Party was believed to already have a strong media influence due to its affiliation with Surya Paloh, the owner of Metro TV and Media Indonesia daily who cofounded the National Democrat mass organization.
Prominent businessman Chairul Tanjung, who reportedly has close ties with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party, owns TV stations TransTV and Trans7, as well as Indonesia's biggest news portal, detik.com.
Ical Bakrie is also believed to have powerful "support" from media as TV stations TV One and ANTV, as well as news portal vivanews.com, are business units under his Bakrie group.
A journalist from Metro TV told the Post that she felt disturbed by his company's strong ties to the political party, pointing to the fact that the independence of Metro TV journalists was sometimes "disputed" when they reported on certain issues, especially on news regarding the Nasdem Party.
"As to the implication [of the strong ties between Metro TV and the Nasdem Party], I sometimes feel the public is questioning the credibility of the journalists at Metro TV," the journalist said.
Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) executive director Hadar Nafiz Gumay urged the government to overhaul the political parties' campaign regulations ahead of the 2014 general elections, saying that current elections still had loopholes that politician-cum-media entrepreneurs could exploit for their political interests.
Hadar called on the government to establish a "level playing field" for all political parties in the 2014 elections, especially in regards to TV advertisements. (sat)