(This is unedited version) 

 

A. Introduction

Law No 32/2002 on Broadcasting has divided TV stations into four categories: 1) public TV station, 2) private TV station, 3) subscribed TV station 4) community TV station.
The Law stipulates that state owned TV station TVRI must become public TV station in three years, while existing private TV station should continue its operation under their existing form.
Currently the status of TVRI is the state run TV station, with a transition to become public TV station. The TVRI status as state TV station started from 1975. Before, its status is a foundation since its establishment in 1962.
Therefore, under the new Law, it is interesting to see whether or not TVRI makes some changes on its news programs following the issuance of the Broadcasting Law.  More details on TVRI role and duty as public TV has been further regulated under the Government Regulation No 13/2005 on public TV station TVRI, which basically says that TVRI should educate and not look for profit (non commercial). 
On the other hand, private TV stations had been deemed having too much profit orientation, thus ignoring viewers’ interests to have good quality of news programs. Specific news programs on crimes and sexual contents, and entertainment with one side report and hidden camera shooting have dominated the news in various TV stations as those programs have high ratings. With the new Law prohibiting programs that focused on crimes, sexual content, drugs and gamble, and insult race, ethnic, religion and specific group, do private TV stations make some changes or just ignore them?
The Law has been actually followed up with the Government Regulation No 50/2005 which also upholds those requirements in the Broadcasting Law.
Similar requirements are also applied to TVRI. What is TVRI stand point?

B. Precise overview
Broadcasting Law No 32/2002 article no 18 (1) stipulates public broadcaster is a broadcasting institution established by the state, independent, neutral, non commercial and has a function to serve the public.
Article 18 (2) states that the public broadcasting institutions are TVRI and RRI (State Owned Radio Station).
The Government Regulation No. 13/2005 on TVRI Article 4 states that TVRI has a role to provide information, education, healthy entertainment, social cohesion and control, preserve the nation culture for the sake of the whole society.
Those articles in the Broadcasting Law and Government Regulations distinguish TVRI with other private TV stations. Indonesia so far has RCTI, Indosiar, TPI, SCTV, ANTV, Trans TV, TV 7, Metro TV, and Lativi which has a national coverage. There are also a number of local private TV stations.
In Broadcasting Law, private broadcasting station is defined as private and commercial broadcasting institution with specific business only in radio and television Article 16.In the Government Regulation No 50/2005 Article 14 (1-7), the private TV stations are obliged to inform, educate, entertain and preserve Indonesian religious values and culture. They are also obliged to protect specific viewers: kids and teenager with a proper air time, and inform the classification of the programs. They must be neutral and non partisan. They can not lie and insult race, ethnic, religion and groups. They cannot focus on crime violence, drugs, gamble and sexual content. They can’t downgrade religious values, human dignity or destroy international relationship.
Article 17 of the regulation (5) bans private TV stations here from relaying foreign news, inappropriate foreign music and violent sport programs. Meanwhile, Article 17 (9) states that private TV stations could cooperate to hold co-programs as long as it would not lead to the monopoly of information. Article 17 (10 and 11) states private TV stations must air to public early warning from the government on possible disasters and the emergency handling of the disaster.
Those which violate the articles in the government regulation could be fined or jailed with the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission being the party that should report any violation to the police if warning against the TV stations is ignored. A five-year-jail term and a maximum fine of Rp 10 billion could be imposed to the violators as stipulated by Article 57 and 58 of the Broadcasting Law No 32/2002.
Before the Broadcasting Law in 2002 and Government Regulation in Broadcasters in 2005, Indonesia has the previous Law No 24/1997 under the authoritarian regime of Soeharto, where there was an obligation for private TV stations to relay the news program from state owned TV station TVRI and the broadcasting programs from the government. This Law no longer took into effect since the Broadcasting Law No 32/2002 is implemented.

C. Local Case
Before citing one private TV station and TVRI as case, it is better first to know the news programs in nine private TV stations and TVRI.  
For example, SCTV- 5-5:30 a.m VOA Journal, 5:30-6:00 a.m Liputan 6 (serious news), 7 -7:30 a.m. Was Was (entertainment news), 8.30-9 a.m. Ada Gossip (entertainment news), 11.30 – 12 a.m. Buser (Crime news), 12:00-12:30 p.m Liputan 6 Siang (serious news), 5:30-6 p.m. Liputan 6 Sore and 12:00  Liputan 6 malam (serious news).  Other TV stations basically have the same format, except Metro TV. Metro TV news programs are all serious without entertainment and crime news.
Metro TV starts its news program with Metro Pagi at 5.30 a.m, 7 a.m with Metro Xin Wen (Chinese language news), 7:30 Metro This Morning ( in English), 9 a.m. Headline News (5 minutes), 9:30 a.m. News flash, 11.a.m. Headline News, 2:00 p.m. Headline News, 5:30 p.m. World News, 6:00 p.m. Headline News, 7:00 p.m. Suara Anda 7.30 p.m. News Flash, 9:00 p.m. Top 9 news, 10:00 p.m.  Sport News,  11.30 Metro Malam.
For TVRI – with its website www.tvri.co.id – news programs only part of the whole program on news, education, and music sport etc. Therefore the news programs are only in the morning, afternoon and at night. Its news programs are 6:00 a.m Berita Pagi or Morning News, followed Berita Nusantara (Archipelago) at 11:00 p.m, Berita Nasional (National News) 7:00 p.m and Dunia Dalam Berita (World in News) at 9:00 p.m. All news program have duration of 30 minutes.
In an interview with Andi F. Noya, Chief Editor of Metro TV, he said his TV station along with the Indonesian Broadcasting Association (APSI) basically agreed with the Law No 32/2002 and the Government Regulation no 50/2005. (There are rejections from the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and the House of Representatives on the government regulation No 50/2005 as it returns the regulatory function to the government instead of to the KPI).
Regardless the controversial issue, Andi highlighted the regulation good side was prohibiting TV stations from airing crime violence and sexual content.
He said on news programs, Metro TV had no longer air crime news.  He added that there was no entertainment news in Metro TV.
“This is not our field of play,” he said. “We say no to air violence, and sexual content.”
Several years ago, Metro TV has a crime news called Bidik, but it then withdrew the program despite the high ratings and commercial.
“We admit that crime news has a high rating, but it does not educate,” he said.  According to him, Metro TV has set a standard not to air such programs before the government regulations No 50/2005 are issued.
However, on the business side, Andi objected the government regulation as it requires the current national private TV stations to go local and they could establish TV station in other provinces under cooperation with local partner. 
Another TV station Trans TV chief editor Iwan Ahmad Sudirman was contacted to have comment on the issue, but he could not comment due to busy schedule. Trans TV is among TV stations which air entertainment news where gossip on artists are the main focus with one sided reporting
An interview by telephone was not allowed in his company as his company now must follow his firm new standard under ISO14000, Iwan further said.
Almost similar to Andi, Broadcast Planning and Research Manager of TVRI Retno Intani, said that TVRI news programs are not focusing on crime, sexual content and entertainment news. “So we have no problem with the regulation,” she said.
However, she said that TVRI had not made ideal changes toward public TV station as mandated by the Law No 32/2002 and the government regulation no 13/2005 because its whole programs still accommodate sexual contained program such as erotic music dangdut show and one sided reporting on the government.
“We have to admit that we need much money now to operate, so we accept programs that do not educate public such as erotic music because it generate money of some Rp 60 million (US$6,000) per hour,” she said.
She explained that TVRI only received Rp 200 billion (US$20 million) per year from the state budget to operate, half of which was allocated for employees salaries in 33 provinces for one year.
“We in Jakarta basically only got Rp 9 billion per year to finance our programs. Comparing to private TV station, it has Rp 9 billion to finance their programs in a month,” she said.
According to her, her TV station is having difficulty to compete with private TV stations due to lack of fund and the mentality of bureaucrats instead of business people.
She refers to BBC, NHK for the future format of TVRI as public TV station. “Their (BBC, NHK) programs educate. They are strong in educated programs, not in news in my opinion, that is the public TV role,” she said.
Both TV stations – TVRI and Metro TV – are good examples in their news programs for not airing crimes, sexual content and entertainment news programs despite high ratings. But the other TV stations still offer those programs frequently and there are no trends from them to reduce such programs.
On issue of relaying programs, the present Broadcasting Law has eliminated the obligation for private TV stations to relay news program from TVRI as well as from the government. Only in the case of natural disaster private TVRI must air government warning and emergency management.
On the relay of news program from foreign broadcasters, there is no more such a thing. Previously, RCTI, Metro TV could relay news from VOA or BBC but now they stop. Only featurized news programs like Journal VOA, which is relayed in Metro TV and SCTV. It contains feature story mainly on Indonesian people who have success stories in the U.S.
But in 2003, when U.S. invaded Iraq, several private TV stations just relayed the news program from foreign TV station. For example, TV 7 relayed news from Al Jazeera, and SCTV relayed news from CNN.

D. Globalization
Globalization certainly has its impact on the regulation of broadcasting and the broadcasting practices in Indonesia. The establishment of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) as regulatory body is part of globalization and democratization pressure. Therefore, when the Government Regulation No 50/2005 was issued and returns the regulatory role to the government, not only KPI and the House of Representatives rejected it, but also international community such as SEAPA (Southeast Asia Press Alliance). There are also many other issues such as the limitation of cross ownership to help diversify news content, which is also part of globalization pressure to the regulation in the good side.
In the bad side of globalization and market force, Foreign TV stations have certain influence to local private TV. For example the use of ratings to prioritize programs is certainly copied here. Crime news, entertainment news are two of bad examples that have high ratings.

E. Analysis
Broadcasting Law No 32/2002 has given a basis for TV stations and relevant parties to act under the corridor of Law. It gives legal certainty to the broadcasting business in the country and ensures press freedom in the country. It is certainly better than Law No 24/1997 which is of course an authoritarian law just like the ruling government of Soeharto.
In its three years implementation of the Broadcasting Law, there are still many violations to the law that are not reduced or eliminated or even punished. For examples, the relay of news during the U.S. invasion in Iraq in 2003, the airing of crime and sexual content news in a number of private TV stations plus its low standard of reporting such as  one sided report, the use of hidden camera, video shooting on criminal suspect, or dead bodies (sensationalism).
Some changes have been made, however, like Metro TV did not air crime news anymore and also did not relay news from abroad.
TVRI also still bows to the market pressure despite its transitional period to become public TV station as mandated by Law No 32/2002 and Government Regulation No 13/2005, which should be a learning period to the role. Its news programs might not have problems with journalism standard, but they need to be more balance not only the voice of government. But they still accommodate the programs that do not educate such as sexual content music program as such programs produce money.
There are also good thing in TV such as serious news program where a good quality of journalist is implemented such as balanced reporting, relatively no sensationalism and sexual content.
There are several ways to improve the quality of news content in the broadcasting media. First is by tightly implementing standard operating procedures and ethics in the news room of TV station including production house.
This method could reduce the sensationalism in the crime news and entertainment news. If any video tape consist dead bodies, TV stations must blur it or not air it. They should also reject one sided story, and reject the use of hidden camera. It might be good if they limit the air time of those programs.
Second is relying on the KPI to warn those TV stations which still violate the prohibition of airing violence and sexual content and report to the police if the violation continues.  Legal action could be further pursued to protect the interest of public as stipulated by Law No 32/2002 once the report from KPI goes to the police.
But amid low legal enforcement in the country, the process could take time just like other affairs in the country.

F. Conclusion
It is quite clear that Indonesian law, globalization pressure, market pressure, protection of public interest have been so dynamic in broadcasting industry in the country.
One main conclusion could be drawn from the current programs TV stations in the country particularly news program is that TV stations still implement double standard in their news program.
While implementing high standard on serious news such as avoiding sensationalism, sexual content and making a balanced report, TV stations offer programs including news program that did not meet the Broadcasting Law and Government Regulation.
Crimes news which contained violence and sexual content news are still dominant in private TV stations, while entertainment news still used low standard of reporting such as hidden camera, one sided reporting.
Metro has made one step ahead of the other TV stations by not airing crimes news and entertainment news.
TVRI is still hesitated not to air programs that do not contain violence, sexual content due to financial problem in the institution.

Bibliography
1. Law No 32/2002 on Broadcasting
2. Government Regulation No 13/ 2005 on TVRI
3. Government Regulation No 50/2005 on private broadcasters.
4. www.bbc.co.uk
5. ‘TVRI, Persero dan Masa Depan TV Publik”( TVRI, Firm and The Future of Public TV Station) by Gun Gun Heryanto, Sinar Harapan daily newspaper, April 25, 2003
6. “Agent of Power: The Media and Public Policy” by J. Herbert Altschull,