Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed on Thursday a controversial broadcasting bill despite protests it will curtail press freedom.

"The bill was endorsed by all but one faction," legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf told AFP, referring to the small Unity and Nationhood faction who wanted the passage to be delayed to allow a further review, he said.

The bill provides for the establishment of a National Broadcasting Commission, which is answerable to the office of the president. The law has drawn criticism from local broadcasters.

On Thursday, scores of employees from nine television stations, including soap opera actors, rallied outside the House to demand legislators delay passing the bill. "The broadcast bill stupifies the public," read one of the posters.

Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a letter dated Wednesday to President Megawati and cited by AFP, urged the Indonesian government to review the bill, saying it contained numerous undemocratic provisions that threatened a burgeoning free press.

Indonesia's press became one of the freest in Asia after the fall of autocratic president Soeharto in 1998. His government imposed strict control on the media and closed down publications which carried unfavorable reports.