INDONESIA: Media chiefs questioned over alleged election violation

Police investigate allegations that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono violated regulations by discussing political goals prior to campaign season

The Jakarta Post
Saturday, June 13, 2009

By Dicky Christanto

The National Police summoned two media chiefs Friday for questioning about the broadcast of an alleged election violation committed by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono during a closed door meeting conducted last week.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said Metro TV chief editor Elman Saragih and TVRI general manager Purnomo were brought in to clarify some details.

"They were questioned because they broadcast this meeting which could potentially turn out to be an open campaign violation," he told The Jakarta Post.

"We need to learn more about this case from other perspectives."

The controversy revolves around speeches made by the pair during the closed door meeting, which was organized by the coalition of parties supporting the candidates on May 30.

The General Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) claim that the pair discussed their political goals and agenda, which under election regulations is forbidden before the campaign session begins.

Bawaslu also reported Metro TV and TVRI for committing violations because those networks were the only news outlets to broadcast the event at the time.

TVRI aired the whole meeting while Metro TV only inserted a fragment in its daily news service.

"We have been invited here [National Police headquarters] to discuss some technical problems related to the broadcast," said Purnomo.

"We were also asked whether we were already aware of the regulations surrounding open campaigns during the meeting."

He said TVRI had no intention of airing an open campaign event at that time. He also denied accusations that TVRI was paid to broadcast the meeting in its entirety.

He said TVR1 decided to broadcast the meeting because it had done the same for other candidate pairs, and wished to be objective.

"We aired a similar meeting with Jusuf Kalla on May 29 and encountered no problems," Purnomo said.

However he admitted that TVRI may have infringed on the regulation prohibiting the airing of open campaign events because of changes to the campaign schedule.

Date Posted: 6/13/2009