Defara Dhanya Paramitha, Jakarta – Chairman of the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI) Herik Kurniawan asked the entire press community to reject the revision plan of the Broadcasting Law.

The provisions under the regulation are considered a threat to freedom of the press and are feared to become a tool to silence press freedom.

Herik admitted that he appreciated the revision process. However, he explained several articles in the final draft of the Broadcasting Bill were detrimental to the press and the public.

"We have questions about several articles. So, our stance is not to let this bill be passed hastily," said Herik at the Press Council Building, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

According to him, the House of Representatives or DPR should only start the process of revising the law after the transfer of administration is completed. "So the results are optimal, rather than rushed. The consequences will be bad and the people most affected are the citizens," he said. "That's the most dangerous."

Herik also highlighted several elements in the revised Bill that threaten press freedom, one of which is the prohibition on producing investigative journalistic works.

"I don't know what would happen if these articles were passed, even though we know that investigative journalism is the basis of journalism itself," he said. "Once it is forbidden, the public will only get shallow and rudimentary information."

Therefore, IJTI emphasized that it rejected the revision of the Broadcasting Law and asked that it be revoked.

Previously, the Press Council and its constituents firmly rejected the revision of the Broadcasting Law. Chairman of the Press Council, Ninik Rahayu, said that the revised draft of the Broadcasting Law is not in accordance with the constitutional rights of citizens which are regulated in the 1945 Constitution.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1868018/ijti-broadcasting-bill-detrimental-to-press-freedom-and-citizen