March 13, 2026
JAKARTA – The Human Rights Ministry is considering efforts to protect the sustainability of mainstream media amid the domination of digital platforms, including social media, in fulfilling people’s demand of information.
Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai said that preserving the rights of the Indonesian media is paramount to preserving human rights and protecting civilization since the press has been a critical actor in the fight for human rights in the country.
He said he would hold a dialogue with the Press Council that could recommend the necessary steps that could be formalized in regulations to protect the business sustainability of media industry.
“In regulations, laws concerning human rights that we will produce with the House of Representatives this year, we could put [stipulations] that could ensure the sustainability of the Indonesian press,” Natalius said on Wednesday during an event in Jakarta.
Indonesian press and the mainstream media in the country have found themselves in financial trouble in the past few years amid the domination of global platforms that monopolize the production and distribution of information.
Newspapers have experienced a decline in circulation, many of which have ended in closing down for good, while digital businesses have yet to pick up as news and information have been largely available for free on digital platforms.
Following in the steps of Australia, the government, in support of the Indonesian press, issued Presidential Regulation No. 32/2024 on platform responsibility for quality journalism, also known as the publisher rights policy. The regulation has mandated digital platforms to pay news publishers for distributing news and information that they produce on their platforms.
But there have been worries that the policy would no longer hold after President Prabowo Subianto signed the US-Indonesia Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), which includes an article that may void the publishers rights policy and prevent further any forms of payments or profit-sharing between US digital platforms – which practically all platforms used in the country – and the Indonesian media companies.
Sutta Dharmasaputra, the chief editor of online media Suar, said if the government wants to protect society from misinformation and other harms, and that it must stand with the mainstream media in accordance with the Press Code and the Press Law.
The law and ethics, he said, prevent the press from producing misinformation or harmful and degrading content in ways that digital platforms cannot protect society from.
“Platforms stream pornographic pictures. If this is a mainstream media company, it will be sued. So the mainstream media will not produce or distribute that kind of content,” said the senior journalist and former chief editor of Kompas daily.
Sutta also said content that is harmful for children is also unmoderated, which is attributed to the irresponsible practices of the digital platforms.
The Communications and Digital Ministry recently announced the implementation of Government Regulation No. 17/2025 on electronic system providers governance for child protection (PP Tunas), which introduces stricter governance measures aimed at protecting children in the digital space. Among other provisions, the regulation restricts children’s access to social media platforms, online games and e-commerce services.
It is, however, still unknown on how the ministry would implement the far-reaching extent of the regulation and how it will supervise the digital platforms for compliance.