Jakarta – The legal debate on the monopoly of information in the country has continued in a hearing as the Constitutional Court invited more experts on Thursday.
The hearing was part of a judicial review, requested by the Independent Coalition for Broadcasting Democratization (KIDP), of two articles in the 2002 Broadcasting Law.
The KIDP claimed some electronic media tycoons had misinterpreted the first clause in Article 18 and the fourth clause in Article 34, which had resulted in a monopoly of television stations.
The coalition referred to several holding companies, which own more than one station, such as the MNC Group with RCTI, MNC and Global TV; Visi Media Group with tvOne and ANTV and Trans Corp., which controls TRANS7 and TRANS TV.
The experts who testified before the court were Alwi Dahlan, Yanuar Rizky, Paulus Widiyanto, Ichlasul Amal and Tjipta Lesmana.
In his testimony, Alwi, a communications expert from the University of Indonesia (UI), said radio spectrum was under public ownership and should not be owned by any one individual or institution. "Ownership concentrations are dangerous for society," he told The Jakarta Post.
Paulus, a member of the House of Representatives' committee that drafted the law, said every broadcasting-license owner was forbidden to transfer or sell their ownership to another party as stated in the fourth clause of Article 34. However, he added, there had been cases of license transfer when a television station had been bought by another, or when two companies merged.
"If a company goes bankrupt or cannot manage its operations anymore, the license must be returned to the KPI [the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission] or to the government. But that has never happened because the companies keep transferring the licenses among themselves," he said.
Meanwhile, Tjipta, a communications expert at Pelita Harapan University, dismissed the KIDP's claim that current media ownership would threaten democracy in the country.
According to Tjipta, electronic media has very little power in influencing public perception. "Take the Bank Century case as an example. The media bombarded us with stories about it, but what has been the result? It shows the weakness of the media," he added. Tjipta also called on critics to prove that press conglomeration had influenced media content.
Speaking after the hearing, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD said all parties should submit their final written opinions on the judicial review by April 19.
In addition, the Association of Indonesian Private Television Stations (ATVSI) said it had not been involved in the KPI's policy-making process. Recently, ATVSI protested against the KPI after it released the 2012 Broadcasting Guidelines and Program Standards (P3SPS) on April 1.
Wijaya Kusuma Subroto of ATVSI told the Post on Thursday the association did not object to the guidelines, but thought the KPI should have involved them in the drafting process.
He added that ATVSI's involvement, along with the involvement of other broadcasting associations, was regulated in Article 8, Clause 2(b) of the Broadcasting Law. (tas)