Actress and musician Yulia Rachmawati, better known as Julia Perez, was seen in yellow gym gear on a television gossip show several weeks ago where a reporter asked her if she planned on having vaginoplasty.
Infotainment programs are coming under heavy criticism from many sections of society. At a discussion in Jakarta on Friday, media pundits, activists and members of the public branded such programs unethical, biased in their reporting, and in violation of the journalistic code of ethics.
The National Broadcasting Commission (KPI) said infotainment shows topped the list of complaints, with a 32percent complaint rate, since January 2010.
Talk shows and reality shows placed second and third on the complaint list, with 12 and 10 percent rates respectively. All complaints filed with the commission were related to repetitiveness, ubiquity and obscene content.
Currently, infotainment slots dominate the airwaves with an average of 40 percent of total airtime.
KPI chairman Dadang Rahmat Hidayat said the commission was working with media experts, press pundits, infotainment workers and society groups to redefine and evaluate factual and non-factual
programs.
The factual and non-factual factors, he said, were crucial to determining whether such programs could be considered journalistic.
Media Regulation and Regulator Watch director Amir Effendi Siregar took a firm stance on the issue, saying infotainment shows could not be considered journalism.
“As a consequence, should such shows be said to fall under the category of non-journalism or non-factual programs, infotainment workers should not be perceived as journalists, thus making them vulnerable to possible defamatory charges regulated by the Criminal Code, not under the journalistic code of ethics,” he said.
Amir said if infotainment was categorized as non-factual, it would be subject to greater censorship by the Film Censorship Body.
A censorship board official said the body would face difficulties in censoring live infotainment shows, and that it successfully censored only 10 percent of the 210 infotainment slots in 2008, citing a lack of resources as the main issue.
Currently, the journalistic status of infotainment workers is unclear. The Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) says the workers have the right to call themselves journalists, while the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI) says they were not journalists because they worked for the entertainment industry.
Infotainment mogul Amazon Dalimunthe, a former TV gossip show producer known for the shows Kabar Kabari and Otista, said the TV industry should be held accountable for the current “revolting” infotainment content.
“They should be able to filter infotainment content through self-censorship, and most importantly, they are responsible for training and educating infotainment workers about journalistic standards,” he said. (tsy)
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