TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairman of the Press Council Yosep Adi Prasetyo said that the current news coverage on elections is still far from upholding the accessibility principle for the disabled.
"They (the disabled) also have the rights to vote,” Yosep said in Jakarta on Saturday (13/8).
Yosep added that so far, news coverage about election is about ‘who will compete with who, which party that will form a coalition with what party, and things like that’.
“In fact, election is not all about politics but also has something to do with the rights of the citizens,” he added.
Yosep went on to say that the accessibility principle has not been applied to the full by the media.
One of the goals of the principle, he said, is to facilitate the disabled to have access to the correct information.
"The goal of the principle is to encourage the disabled to vote,” he added.
One of the examples of the lack of accessibility principle on the news about election is the decreasing number of sign language interpreters when a pair or a candidate reveals their visions and missions on TV.
Yosep further said that the visions and missions of a pair or a candidate in an election must also be accessible by the disabled.
"The point is, we must not discriminate the disabled because they also have the same rights to vote,” he concluded.
ODELIA SINAGA