Jokowi Calls the Presidential Decree on Publisher Rights is Complicated but Nearly Completed

President Joko Widodo gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the 25th Congress of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday (25/9/2023). BETWEEN/Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said that the practice of discussing presidential regulations regarding publisher rights is complicated due to differences in desires between parties.

However, the President emphasized that discussions regarding "publisher rights" were almost complete.

"For publisher rights, we have been discussing this for a long time with all stakeholders. I used to say what to do, we finished working on it for a month, but in practice it is very complicated. This one doesn't want to, this one doesn't want to, this doesn't want to be finished for a long time ," said President Jokowi at the opening ceremony of the 25th Congress of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) at the State Palace, Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Monday, September 25.

The President explained that common ground between stakeholders has begun to appear and is strengthening so that it can be published soon.

The Head of State also acknowledged that regulations regarding publishers' rights are the most important thing for mass media to consider.

"Now the process is almost complete. It's not finished yet, it's almost finished, hopefully there's just a little more left and there won't be any more tug-of-war," said the President.

The government is currently drafting a Presidential Decree regarding Publisher's Rights. Deputy Minister of Communication and Information Nezar Patria said that in general the Presidential Decree on Publisher Rights regulates news content produced by press companies.

Furthermore, digital platforms can carry out a kind of filtering of which content is news and which is not. The news content is then commercialized.

However, one of the digital platforms, Google, expressed objections regarding the draft Presidential Decree. Google is concerned that this regulation could limit the diversity of news sources for the public.

Google stated that if the regulation is passed in its current form, this could affect their ability to provide relevant, credible and diverse online information sources for users of Google products in Indonesia.