Tracing the Concept of Public Broadcasting on AES Thought
Public broadcasting is a must. Public broadcasting is here to fulfill the public’s right to quality and high-quality information. From here, the public will become a civilized society because they are educated with information. With information, people can organize themselves and improve their quality of life and civilization. So, public broadcasting must be present as a counterweight.
“In countries with advanced democracies, the existence of public broadcasting is very much needed for balance,” said Darmanto, Program Manager for the Change House of the Public Broadcasting Institution (RP LPP) in the Book Discussion Against Capital Authoritarianism Volume 2, on Saturday, July 3, 2021. the Department of Communications UII held this discussion with cooperation by PR2Media, and SPS to commemorate and perpetuate Amir Effendi Siregar’s thoughts. Amir Effendi Siregar (AES) is the founder of the Department of Communications and PR2Media, two key institutions in communication and Media studies in Indonesia.
Darmanto is one of the authors of a book containing a collection of writings by AES students, friends, colleagues, and colleagues on democratization thinking and the media movement. According to Darmanto, one of AES’ most important thoughts is about publicity and public broadcasting. The existence of public broadcasting is important in a country with a democratic system. Public broadcasters in developed countries also tend to be strong, independent, and professional institutions.
The reason for the existence of public broadcasting, said Darmanto, was to draw on the thoughts of AES to serve the public interest. “The raison d’etre of public broadcasting is for that, serving the public interest,” said Darmanto. Public broadcasting, therefore, must be an independent institution from various fields. Be independent in terms of human resources, editorial, to finance.
According to AES, said Darmanto, in terms of independence, HR management at RRI TVRI is still a problem. Not to mention, because LPP fulfills the public interest, it needs special regulations or laws that provide an umbrella for public broadcasting to be more independent on all fronts.
The discourse on public broadcasting has long shifted towards the term public service media (public service media). It relies not only on broadcast media but also on any media with a wider scope in the internet era. “Even in Scandinavian countries, in 2003, they released a book on public service media,” said M. Kabul Budiono, TVRI’s Supervisory Board, who was also a speaker on the occasion.
