Press Council Chair Explains Publisher Rights
Translator
Editor
23 March 2024 12:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Press Council Chair Ninik Rahayu explains the Presidential Regulation on Publisher Rights for media business sustainability.
Last month, President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Regulation No. 32/2024 regarding the Responsibilities of Digital Companies to Support Quality Journalism. It took the government three years to finalize the regulation from its inception in 2021. The decree, known as the publisher rights regulation, governs digital platform companies’ obligation to refrain from spreading negative news and to collaborate and share the collaboration results with media companies.
Press Council Chair Ninik Rahayu recounted that the bill deliberation was marked by intense lobbying and negotiation. Media companies, for example, questioned the Press Council’s verification requirement to enter into binding contracts with digital platforms. Meanwhile, digital platforms such as Google and social media platforms such as Facebook, among others, objected to the obligation to sort and remove negative news from their search engines. “The bottom line is that everyone reduces tension,” she said.
The issuance of the Publisher Rights regulation did not go without polemic. There have been concerns about potential restrictions over news content. Ninik ensured that the regulation would not lead to censorship practices. “Platforms are not determiners. Everything must be referred back to the Press Council,” she added.
Ninik sat down with Tempo for a special interview at the Tempo headquarters in West Jakarta on Wednesday, March 6, right after giving a speech at the event commemorating Tempo’s 53rd anniversary. The former member of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia explained the publisher rights regulation formulation process and the challenges the press faces in the digital era for over an hour. Excerpts:
How did the process of making this presidential regulation on publisher rights begin?
It started when our press colleagues voiced their grievances to President Joko Widodo on National Press Day in early 2021. They told him about the media ecosystem in the digital era that was making it increasingly difficult for the public to differentiate between conventional information and journalistic works. There were also complaints about revenue sharing as the media companies did not feel they received due shares compared with what digital companies were getting.
