Press Council Calls Media to Maintain Non Partisanship
Translator
Editor
Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO/Machfoed Gembong
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Following the feud between Prabowo Subianto’s campaign team and MetroTV, member of the Indonesian Press Council Hendry CH Bangun called for every news agencies to maintain non-partisanship in covering issues regarding the upcoming general election.
“There are no reports [of violations] so far,” said Hendry yesterday.
Hendry maintained that the Press Council will soon issue a circular letter urging mass-medias to stay neutral during the election year and will wait for any reports of biased reporting from the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).
Reported yesterday, campaign chief of presidential and vice presidential hopefuls Prabowo Subianto – Sandiaga Uno, Djoko Santoso decided to boycott MetroTV which is owned by NasDem Party Chairman Surya Paloh.
Djoko Santoso deemed MetroTV’s talk show programs were biased and hurt the chances of Prabowo – Sandiaga in the upcoming election. Meanwhile, campaign spokesman Ferry Juliantono said that the boycott is their attempt to urge the media to be more objective and less partisan in their broadcasts.