Reformasi: Vulnerable values and the regulation of television

The regulation of television in Indonesia is in disarray. It hasbeen since September 1997, and some might argue that it was in disarray long before that. The unpopular and controversial Broadcasting Law #24, signed into law on 29 September 1997, set up site pegs across the field of broadcasting, but little more than that. A lot of the detail, especially the government regulations which were to be drafted by the Department of Information, had to be in place by September 1999 for the Law to be operational. The regulations have not been drafted. The management of television broadcasting has been thrown into chaos by former President Soeharto’s resignation in May 1998, jostling from five alternative bills designed to replace the humpty dumpty Law #24, the recent issue of five “in-principle ” commercial television licenses, and the government’s decision in November 1999 to dismantle the Department of Information and make the state television service TVRI pay its own way by raising revenue fro