Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih delivering the Court’s legal opinion at the ruling hearing for the judicial review of Law No. 32 of 2002 on Broadcasting, Thursday (2/29/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) declared the judicial review petition of Article 48 paragraph (4) letter e of Law No. 32 of 2002 on Broadcasting by Wiwit Purwito, a private employee, inadmissible. The ruling hearing for Decision No. 11/PUU-XXII/2024 took place on Thursday, February 29, 2024 in the plenary courtroom, chaired by Chief Justice Suhartoyo.

In its legal considerations, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih stated that protection for children, adolescents, and women in the broadcasting guidelines is limited to prohibition against broadcasts or scenes that only applies to high school level or equivalent or on the use of school uniforms in romantic scenes involving opposite sexes. Therefore, the petitum would reduce the protection for children, youth and women.

In addition, Justice Enny continued, the petitum did not include the word “not” so as to provide interpretation in line with the reasons for the petition. Such a petitum is not in line and does not correlate with the matters described to explain the increasing elements of violence and romantic scenes in cinema or soap operas, so it is necessary to provide limits to the protection for children, adolescents, and women in the broadcasting guidelines set by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI). The Court asserted that the petitum should not have changed the direction of nor obscured the previous interpretation, and the conflict between the norms petitioned and the touchstones in the 1945 Constitution should have been explained clearly and sufficiently.

“Therefore, after the Court examined the Petitioner’s petition, the Petitioner has met the qualifications as referred to Article 74 of [the Constitutional Court Regulation] No. 2 of 2021. Thus, because there was a discrepancy between the reasons for the petition (posita) and what is requested (petitum) to the Court, there is no doubt for the Court to declare the Petitioner’s petition unclear or obscure,” Justice Enny concluded.

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Protection for Children from Negative Broadcasts Questioned

Petitioner Questioning Negative Broadcasts Affirms Potential Constitutional Impairment

At the preliminary hearing on Friday, February 2, the Petitioner alleged the article is in violation of Article 28B paragraph (2), Article 28C, and Article 28F of the 1945 Constitution. He wished for a confirmation of the limits of child protection in the consumption of cinema because currently there has been an increasing number of movies that contain elements of violence, romance, and adult scenes, which have negative impacts on children and teenagers. In the petition, the Petitioner also mentioned several soap operas and movies airing on television that have negative impacts on children and adolescents, including Anak Jalanan (English: Street Kids), Ganteng-Ganteng Serigala (English: Handsome Wolves).

These soap operas, he alleged, rarely portrays positive scenes such as studying, despite being shot in a school environment or while the cast are wearing school uniforms. The Petitioner was concerned as children and teenagers often imitate behavior shown by adults that they often see and hear, so these television entertainment contents have caused parents to worry about the development and characters of children exposed to such shows that are full of negative messages. Therefore, he believed broadcasting institutions (in this case the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission or KPI), which are mass communication media that have an important role in social life, should take on the responsible for supervising, screening, and selecting films that are suitable for children and teenagers.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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