JAKARTA: It may not have been so unusual to hear earlier this year that the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) had issued a warning letter to a television station for airing a programme featuring a kissing scene.
It was not, though, part of a sexually charged, passionate embrace. The offending scene appeared in an episode of Shaun the Sheep, the British animated children’s series and spin-off of the popular Wallace and Gromit franchise.
The watchdog ruled that the programme, which aired in July, violated Article 14 on child protection and Article 16 on the limitation of sexual content in the Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Broadcasting Standards.
KPI spokesman Andi Andrianto told the South China Morning Post that the segment was inappropriate and unacceptable for a television programme aimed at young children. “The scene began with a ring falling between a woman’s breasts, and then the couple stared at each other and kissed,” he explains.
As the country’s supervisory body overseeing television and radio broadcasters, the KPI will file warning letters and demand that broadcasters stop showing content deemed to be in violation of the code of conduct and broadcasting standards. It does not issue fines. Instead, the KPI has the authority to revoke a company’s broadcasting permit after issuing a third warning letter. It is the responsibility of broadcasters to censor the content they air.
However, the situation has led to accusations of overzealous censorship among television stations, of which there have been a number of memorable cases in recent years involving children’s cartoons.
In 2015, Global TV cut several fight scenes from the Japanese animated show Dragon Ball for violating Article 17, which is intended to limit violent content, especially on children’s programmes. A few months later, a scene from the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants featuring the character Sandy the squirrel was shown with her body blurred because she was wearing a bikini. An episode of popular animated Japanese cartoon Doraemon was also censored because one of the female characters was wearing a swimsuit.
Such incidents have drawn the ire of many viewers, who have turned to social media to lambast both the KPI and broadcasters.
KPI chairman Yuliandre Darwis, in an interview with the Post, stresses that it is broadcasters who decide what to censor, and the agency’s job is merely to monitor the programmes that they air.
According to Darwis, the regulations stipulate that there should be no close-up shots of a person’s breasts, thighs or buttocks. It is not stated, however, whether the regulations also apply to animated characters. The quality control department of television stations must decide whether a scene should be censored based on the code of conduct and broadcasting standards.
“Of course, they need to have a clear understanding of the law,” Darwis says… (CONTINUED)
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