A Batam-based radio station has accused the Indonesian government of rejecting its broadcasting licence because of an intervention by the Chinese Embassy, a lawyer for the station said yesterday. The embassy had sent a letter to the Communication Ministry and the Indonesian Broadcasting Committee in April 2007, requesting the termination of Radio Era Baru’s broadcasting activity, “because of the radio’s reports on Falun Gong,” the station’s lawyer Muhammad Solihin said after attending a trial session in the Central Jakarta District Court.
The court is handling a lawsuit filed by the radio against the committee, the ministry and the Chinese Embassy. On Tuesday, it was supposed to hand down a preliminary decision on whether it had the authority to try the case. The judges, however, were not ready with the decision and adjourned the session until next Tuesday.
The Broadcasting Committee had denied the intervention from the Chinese Embassy. It based its decision not to issue a recommendation for Era Baru on the fact that the radio had violated the regulation on broadcasting in a foreign language for a maximum 30 percent of all broadcasting hours.
Mr Solihin said the station, which started broadcasting in 2005, had cut down its Chinese language broadcasting portion to the required 30 percent following the committee’s warning. Radio Era Baru, which reported on Falun Gong in 2007, is still on the air.
(Source: Jakarta Post)
