Do We Still Need PSB Supervisory Board?
The Supervisory Board (Dewas) of the Public Service Broadcasting/PSB is commonly understood as the highest entity in the governance of the PSB, especially in Indonesia. Dewas contains various elements. It is starting from the public, government to PSB elements.
Public involvement in the Dewas, or according to Masduki, more accurately the Public Broadcasting Council, is vital for LPP. “The key word of public service broadcasting board is representation. The more representative, the more ideal,” said Masduki, UII Lecturer at Department of Communications, who is also research specialist on Public Service Media, at the Webinar held on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
This weekend webinar welcomes Indonesian National Broadcasting Day, entitled ‘Do We Still Need an PSB Supervisory Board?’ This webinar, organized by the Media Care Society (MPM), Yogyakarta, was attended by various academics, practitioners, and other general participants.
Besides Masduki, other speakers were M. Mistam (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of RRI period of 2016-2020), Paulus Widiyanto (Chairman of the DPR Special Committee on Broadcasting Law Number 32/2002), and Mira Rochyadi Reetz, an academic from the Institute of Media and Communication Science Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany.
Quoting Professor Hanrietty, in the book entitled Public broadcasting and the political interference, Masduki said two things need to be highlighted in a supervisory board structure or a public broadcasting board. The first is the representation and the second is the appointment procedure for the election.
Masduki explained that there are three models of PSB representation in the world. The first is a liberalistic open competitive representation. “This is like the system used in Indonesia, there is potential for clientelism,” Masduki explained. “This means that only those who are close to the voting team have a high chance of becoming the PSB Supervisory Board.”
While the second model is civic representation, all representatives of elements in society are advised to register as PSB Supervisory Board. “For example in Germany, the number of PSB Supervisory Board can be a lot. And they are voluntary. Indonesia has an example, see the press council,” he added.
While the third model is primordialistic representation. The representatives are based on region, ethnicity, gender, etc. “And in Indonesia there are already the experience of the first model of PSB Supervisory Board representation is not good. We have to propose that it be changed in the revision of the broadcasting law,” suggested Masduki, who is also the Founding Council of the PSB Clearing House (Rumah Perubahan Lembaga Penyiaran Publik).
Masduki suggested, now in the future, the councils that are in the election process this time, the more representatives from the public, the better. “The divine principle should be so. For example, from one RRI, one government, then more public representatives,” said Masduki, whose dissertation in Germany specifically discusses public service broadcasting in Indonesia (RRI and TVRI). According to him, this is an effort to recondition towards civic representation ideal in representation in the PSB Supervisory Board.
