Helmy Yahya Denies Allegation of Favoring Foreign Programs

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Former president director of public broadcaster TVRI Helmy Yahya rebuffed the allegations that the national television station was dominated by foreign programs under his management.

“The duration of foreign programs does not exceed 10 percent of the total national duration that reaches 8,000 hours,” said Helmy during a hearing with Commission I of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta, Tuesday, January 28.

According to Helmy, TVRI has a total of 30 regional television stations across the archipelago, and each station broadcasts four-hour local shows daily. So if it is multiplied with 365 days and 30 stations, the yearly duration of local programs recorded at 43,000 hours.

“We promote cultures, regional languages, education, up to information,” he remarked.

Due to the board of directors’ seriousness in managing the state-owned broadcaster, Helmy went on, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) trusted TVRI to display all match series. This was also in line with the rising performance of Indonesian athletes that implicated in the soaring rating and shares of the broadcaster.

Earlier, chief of the TVRI supervisory board Arief Hidayat said that the board of directors under the authority of Helmy focused on increasing the rating by publishing more foreign programs. As a result, TVRI spent its budget to purchase foreign programs, such as Discovery Channel, BWF, and Premier League. 

For the reasons, TVRI supervisory board sacked Helmy Yahya from his position through the issuance of its decree no. 8/DEWS/TVRI/2020. Before the dismissal taking effect on January 16, 2020, Helmy had been suspended on December 4, 2019.

CAESAR AKBAR