Chrysanthemum

Between Need and Dislike:

Judging Audiovisual Censorship in Indonesia

(Hasyim Widhiarto)[1]

For more than a decade, Indonesian government had established a censorship board (Lembaga Sensor Film/LSF) to watch and control the content of audiovisual product distributed for public. According to 1992 Film Act, this censorship was tending to protect citizens from ‘disturbing material’, to maintain national building and to guarantee a decent moral input to society.

Nowadays, after rapid political changes from Soeharto regime, Indonesia is on their way overcoming problems towards democratization and globalization waves. One issue arises is about deregulating censorship for any audiovisual product. In this early year, the largest social movement against censorship, Indonesian Movie Society (Masyarakat Film Indonesia/MFI), officially released their petition to dismiss LSF. They considered LSF as a barrier to national development. The idea of censorship is barely against the spirit of democracy. So, one’s idea and creativity should not be banned by any force. The only thing government can do is classifying the audiovisual products (movies, electronic cinema, ads, video clips, etc) into some categories. Then, let people decide what is good for them.

I have been being concern with this controversy since it was very close to my major field. As a mass communication scholar, I put this debate as a significant matter considering the impact of audiovisual mass media (television, movies, VCD, DVD, etc) on society. In my country, hundred millions of people are watching television everyday: forty millions are poor people and 90 millions are children and teens. Assuming that these kinds of people (poor, children, teens) are not media-literate[2], the audiovisual content they watched would easily shape their mind and understanding about the world. This reason perhaps explains why people are being more consumptive (they watched too many commercials), or more permissive (they watched much biased western cultures from movies). Especially for children, they will learn and imitate a lot of new things from what they watched. It also explains why today’s kids are easy to deliver violence act, indecent words, juvenile delinquencies, aggressive attitude and even more, sexual harassment. So, the next government’s choice, censorship or classification principle, must consider the impact of audiovisual content to these susceptible part of society.

The condition in Indonesian society is different from which in developed countries. That’s why an established treatment held in developed countries isn’t always fit in Indonesia. Classification system itself is something common in many developed countries: United States has MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), Australia has OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification), Netherland has Kijkwijzer, and Japan has Eirin (Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai). But, those countries already had an established social system to faint negative excess of classification system.

For example, there will be X-rated movies circulated in theatre or VCD/DVD market. Consequently, no children under 18 years-old allowed watching or buying such movies. In developed countries, this rule is conducted strictly by the government and the citizen himself. Compared to Indonesia, it is impossible to bound audience access over pornography. Children and teens under-18 easily no need to show their ID card for getting the material easily. In the other hand, parent’s control towards their children activities is somewhat questionable. Moreover, internet access and video piracy make it more difficult to manage.

In this essay, I don’t say that censorship is the only way to create decent society. However, it is true that every country has to be ready facing the globalization in various fields, including information and mass media. But, every country has its unique problems to be solved first. In this case, I have to admit honestly that Indonesian moral, law, and social infrastructure are still not ready to accept ‘wide range’ content of audiovisual product. That’s why; I think the idea to dismiss LSF is not the best solution for us, at least for right now.

In my opinion, establishing and conducting firm regulations is still needed to carry out this matter. But, the most important thing is the government should implant media literacy subject in our education system. I think an idea to enrich the children with this ability will be affecting many things in the future. If we can use mass media, especially audiovisual mass media, effectively and right to the aim we can strengthen this country’s power. We know that sometimes geographical landscape of Indonesia become obstacles to the unity.

I am sure that the debate between censorship and classification system will not meet conclusion as long as there is no society empowerment. When people already know what is good for them, the self censorship will be conducted easily. The most significant thing is we all know what is best for this country, not only for now, but also for shaping decent moral quality for future generation.