'HARAM' FOR MUSLIMS TO WATCH INFOTAINMENT PROGRAMS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, July 28 (ANTARA) - Infotainment programs which have so far attracted a lot of TV viewers have been declared by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) through its 'fatwa' (religious edict) as 'haram' or forbidden according to the Islamic law.          According to the MUI fatwa, it is haram for Muslims to broadcast or to watch certain contents of infotainment, but will this stop TV stations broadcasting this type of entertainment programs or lead viewers to stop watching them?  "It will have little impact," experts say.          The MUI's fatwa will not have a wide impact on the public,  Mohamad Ihsan, communication expert of the Bogor-based Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said on Wednesday.          The same fatwa has also been issued by the Central Board of the  country's largest Muslim organization Nahdatul Ulama (NU) five years ago but the people simply ignored it. The NU issued the same fatwa declaring infotainment as 'haram'. It only colored media reports for several weeks. After that the news about it disappeared and televisions remained convenient in broadcasting infotainment programs.          "The fate of MUI's fatwa, which was issued on Tuesday is most likely the same as that which once issued by the NU. It only sparked uproar for a moment before it died out again," Mohammad Ihsan said.          The MUI issued a fatwa on Tuesday declaring infotainment television programs 'haram'. The 'fatwa' was announced by Ma'ruf Amin, chairman of the Fatwa Commission of the MUI during its national meeting (Munas).           Based on the fatwa, discussing about others' shameful deeds or gossiping, or disclosing the public's and individuals' private life were haram based on the Islamic law. It was also mentioned in the fatwa formulation that it was haram for someone to write a news story which disclosed people's sins. The same was also true to taking benefit from a news story about gossips and others' sins.          However, MUI said that it was allowed to broadcast, disseminate and watch stories about others' shameful deeds and gossips for the interest of enforcing the law and fighting evil deeds.          Therefore, according to communications expert Prof. Sam Abede Parena of the Surabaya-based Dr Soetomo University (Unitomo),  infotainment programs should not be generalized as not all of them are "dirty" or deviate from the norms of propriety or good taste.          "We have to admit that there are one or two infotainment contents which are dirty, verging on pornography and deviating from public norms of propriety but these are only casuistic in nature," he said on Wednesday.          Thus, he said,  infotainment programs should not be generalized and be subjected to the same restrictive regulation. Parena who is a press ethics expert said that infotainment was a kind of information, facts or news which contained entertainment elements, the case of which was similar to soccer news.         "If there is one or two items in  infotainment program which are dirty, it had better be reported to the competent bodies," he said. The competent bodies are among others the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), Association of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI) and the Press Council of Ethics. Journalists have their code of ethics.          Regarding infotainment programs that tended to invade people's private lives or affairs, Parena said that the public had the right to know the private affairs of artists, state officials or other celebrities.         "It is only proper  for the public to know about their private lives. But in this case, the private affairs the public needed to  know are those that are  not dirty. If the programs expose dirty affairs it should be reported to the PWI, AJI, IJTI or the Press Council," he said.           In the meantime, Mohamad Ihsan, communications expert of the Bogor-based Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said that it was basically a good thing for MUI to issue the fatwa as it could serve as a means of people's morality control.          "The fatwa provides a good education so that the people would become more cautious about the danger and impact that could be created by an infotainment program," he said.           He mentioned as an example the behavior of artist Krisdayanti who showed a porn act with Raul Lemos through an infotainment program broadcast by a television station last week.          "The act is against our culture and the Islamic teachings. This kind of infotainment fails to observe social ethics and norms," Ihsan said. He said that although he thought that the fatwa had a positive aspect, yet he was pessimistic that it would have wide impact on the people.          The same opinion was also raised by Deputy Chairman of the Sirajula Falah (Sifa) Tarbiyah Institute, Sudeni Al-Fatoni. "The fatwa is very good but I am not convinced that it would have impact on the people," he said.          Sudeni said that the weak impact of the fatwa could happen because there was no media regulation which could directly control such a program so that televisions could freely broadcast it.          After all, at present there is no single means in the world that could carry out control over the mass media. "Even the state could not control the media. If a state carries out control, it would be accused by the press as interfering in the media which should remain independent," Ihsan said.          He said that the role to control mass media, either electronics, online or print, was actually in the hands of the audience or readers and viewers. The role of the audience was great so that it could influence the color of the mass media.          "The real control over the mass media is basically in the hands of readers/viewers. If we do not like a certain program, just leave it. Thus the program would not survive," he said.          So, it seems that there is no point for MUI to issue the fatwa. According to NU chairman for Central Java M Adnan, there is no need for MUI to issue the fatwa on the infotainment program because not all of its contents are bad.          "We are of the opinion that there is no need for MUI to issue a haram fatwa on infotainment programs because not all of their contents are haram," he said.          The haram ones are infotainment whose contents besmirch other people, sully someone's name or gossiping others' shameful deeds.         "It is known to us all that talking the bad things of other people is a sinful deed and even the Quranic verses have clearly banned people from doing such a thing ," Adnan said.***4*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/A/S012) 29-07-2010 00:01:12