Muninggar Sri Saraswati – The Constitutional Court on Tuesday handed another victory to the country's dominant political parties, ruling that print and electronic media were not required to give all political parties equal opportunity in carrying campaign advertisements.

The verdict opens the door for wealthy parties to dominate pricey media with campaign ads and edge out smaller competitors.

The ruling came just a few days after another Court decision closed the door for independent candidates and candidates who do not have the backing of large parties or a coalition of parties to run for president.

During the hearing, the Court's president, Mahfud MD, said that two articles in the legislative election law surrounding restrictions on campaign media were against the Constitution.

"The articles have caused legal uncertainty, are unfair and are against the principle of freedom of expression that is guaranteed by the Constitution," he said.

The scrapped articles outlined possible sanctions – from a mere reprimand to the revocation of a license – against media that failed to provide equal advertising space or time to all political parties and legislative candidates running in an election.

Mahfud said that the law mixed up the authorities of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, or KPI, the Press Council and the General Elections Commission, or KPU, in dealing out sanctions against media that violated the rules.

"Sanctions to the broadcast media could only be handed out by the government while the [printed] press law does not recognize any organization authorized to revoke the publishing license for print media," Mahfud said. "The article has lost its legal power and raison d'etre so it must be annulled," he said.

Sanctions for media considered to have violated the legislative election law could be derived from separate broadcast and press laws that already exist, Mahfud said.

The existing law on print media lays out sanctions in the form of reprimands or fines, while the law on broadcast media lists possible punishments that range from reprimands or the suspension of broadcast rights to the revocation of broadcasters' licenses, which could only be done by the Minister of Communication and Information Technology following a recommendation from the KPI.

Eight chief newspaper editors filed a demand for a judicial review of the media advertising articles contained in the legislative election law, arguing that running campaign ads was a necessary source of income to keep them alive.

They said the country's various political parties had different strengths when it came to financing ads in media.

The eight chief editors who filed for a judicial review of the law include Tarman Azzam of the daily Harian Terbit; Kristanto Hartadi of the Sinar Harapan evening daily; Sasongko Tedjo of the Semarang-based Suara Merdeka; Ratna Susilowati of the Rakyat Merdeka daily; Marthen Selamet Susanto of Koran Jakarta; Badiri Siahaan of the Media Bangsa; Dedy Pristiwanto of Warta Kota daily and Ilham Bintang of Cek & Ricek Tabloid.

At the national level, a total of 34 political parties have been declared eligible to take part in April's legislative elections, 10 more than in the previous elections in 2004. The 34 parties include 18 new political parties running for the first time.

Out of the old parties, only 16 are represented in the House of Representatives, and only six hold more than 50 seats in the 550-seat House.

Indonesian officials have previously stated that there were too many parties and that it would be better to winnow the number down to just a few.