ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Media Governance and the Public Sphere
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1682232
Broadcasting in the Shadow of Power: Regulatory Challenges and Political Violations During Indonesia's 2024 Election
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universitas Ciputra, Surabaya, Indonesia
- 2Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia
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Amid intensified political competition during Indonesia's 2024 General Election, this study examines how broadcasting regulators enforced ethical standards under structural, commercial, and ideological pressures. Using a qualitative case study method, it draws from institutional documents, official reports, and interviews with broadcasting practitioners in West Java to analyse the challenges faced by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and its regional counterparts (KPID) in maintaining media neutrality. Findings show that politically biased content and premature campaign materials were frequently aired by national broadcasters, often influenced by partisan ownership and central editorial control. Local stations lacked authority to intervene, as the National Network System (SSJ) limited regional oversight and contributed to inconsistent enforcement. Regulatory actions were largely reactive, relying on post-violation warnings rather than proactive prevention. The study applies critical media theories to reveal how market competition, structural asymmetries, and blurred boundaries between journalism and political promotion undermine regulatory independence. It concludes that Indonesia's current broadcast regulation system remains vulnerable to media oligarchy and lacks the institutional resilience needed to protect democratic communication. To address these challenges, urgent reforms are recommended in legal authority, transparency, and civic engagement. This research contributes to broader debates on media governance and electoral integrity in hybrid media environments.
Keywords: Broadcast regulation, election coverage, media bias, political communication, Indonesia 2024 General Election
Received: 08 Aug 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sulistijanto, Abdurrahman and Syah Putra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sufyan Abdurrahman, sufyandigitalpr@gmail.com
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