History

Indonesia

1964 – Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) began operations. This station played a huge role in promoting the official viewpoint of the country, and it acted as a policy instrument and a tool for promoting national unity. The government recognized this and provided free TV sets to villages to reach the entire country. 1981 – Administration banned advertising from television due to it’s western, urban, consumer-oriented effect on village life. Contrary to traditional values. 1988 – Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI) began operations as the first commercial television station. Advertising was the backbone of its existence. 1998 – President Suharto resigned due to lack of support for his presidency following severe economic and political crises. In order to publish a newspaper or newsmagazine during his years of presidency, it took political connection and large amounts of money. So when he resigned, the following couple years were defined by an explosion of news media by various Indonesians. 2002 – Broadcast Act: local stations prohibited from distributing foreign broadcasts 2008 – Law on Public Information Transparency was created and allows for the right to freedom of information, but its implementation is flawed. It conflicts with the State Intelligence Law of 2011 that protects individuals or legal entities from revealing state secrets. 2011 – A Constitutional Court decision was made to uphold a law prohibiting blasphemy. This had negative implications for freedom of expression. The government believed that prohibiting blasphemy was vital to protected religious harmony. (Controversy also struck over the judges’ apparent endorsement of this argument.) This impacted media and their right to freedom of expression. 2012 – 56 incidents of violence towards the press were reported by the Alliance of Independent Journalism (AJI) This number decreased to about 41 in 2014. Most cases are harassment and assaults against reporters who attempt to cover sensitive news or protests. 2014 – Media coverage of the election campaign was biased due to control of major news outlets by Aburizal Bakrie and Surya Paloh. Backrie, owner of tvOne and ANTV, openly supported canidate Prabowo Subianto. Paloh, openly supported Widodo. These opinions greatly affected the media coverage they provided. 2014 – 10 million websites were reported (by iLab, an Indonesian nongovernmental organization that promotes open data and transparency) to have been blocked over the past three years by Indonesia’s filtering system due to “negative” or “culturally inappropriate” content.