Television of the Republic of Indonesia (TVRI)

Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) is Indonesia’s national public broadcaster and the country’s first television station, first broadcasting on 24 August 1962, a date marked as National Television Day. It held an exclusive monopoly over Indonesian television for nearly three decades until private broadcasters entered the market in 1989. It now operates national services alongside 34 regional broadcasting stations, giving it one of the widest terrestrial footprints in the archipelago.

Media assets

Television: National- TVRI Nasional, Kanal 2, Kanal 3, Sport; Regional- TVRI Aceh, TVRI Sumatera Utara, TVRI Sumatera Barat, TVRI Riau Kepri, TVRI Jambi, TVRI Bengkulu, TVRI Sumatera Selatan, TVRI Bangka Belitung, TVRI Lampung, TVRI Jakarta, TVRI Jawa Barat, TVRI Jawa Tengah, TVRI Yogyakarta, TVRI Jawa Timur, TVRI Bali, TVRI NTB, TVRI NTT, TVRI Kalimantan Barat, TVRI Kalimantan Tengah, TVRI Kalimantan Timur, TVRI Kalimantan Selatan, TVRI Sulawesi Utara, TVRI Gorontalo, TVRI Sulawesi Tengah, TVRI Sulawesi Barat, TVRI Sulawesi Tenggara, TVRI Sulawesi Selatan, TVRI Maluku, TVRI Papua Barat, TVRI Papua; International- TVRI World

Ownership and governance

TVRI’s institutional form has changed repeatedly. It began as a foundation in 1963, became a government technical unit in 1976, was subsequently constituted as a Perusahaan Jawatan (Perjan), and became a Persero state-owned company in 2002 before its conversion to public broadcasting institution status.

That conversion followed Law No. 32/2002 on Broadcasting, with Government Regulation No. 11/2005 providing the general framework for public broadcasting institutions and Government Regulation No. 13/2005 dealing specifically with LPP TVRI. Government Regulation No. 4/2024 subsequently amended PP 13/2005.

Governance rests on two bodies. The Supervisory Board (Dewan Pengawas) of five members is formally established by the President on the proposal of the People’s Representative Council, following an open fit-and-proper process in the DPR that takes government and public input into account. The Board of Directors is appointed by the Supervisory Board, which also selects the Director Utama; presidential approval is required for premature dismissal rather than for appointment. TVRI’s management structure comprises the Director Utama together with five functional directors.

Agus Sudibyo continues as Chair of the Supervisory Board for the 2023–2028 term. A media scholar and policy advisor with a background in philosophy and communication studies, he has been an active voice for press freedom and public-interest media.

Executive leadership changed during the review period. Iman Brotoseno, appointed Director Utama in May 2020 and reaffirmed for 2023–2028, announced his resignation on 23 February 2026, stating that he was standing down to focus on his health and that there had been no political pressure or threat of any kind. The Supervisory Board accepted the resignation at its meeting of 5 March 2026 and appointed Rika Damayanti, then Director Umum, as acting Director Utama.

The succession proceeded through a documented open process beginning on 22 April, which attracted 137 applicants. Five reached the final stage, and following a fit-and-proper test before the Supervisory Board, Tubagus Fiki Chikara Satari was appointed and inaugurated as Director Utama on 8 June 2026 for the remainder of the 2023–2028 term. Agus Sudibyo described the selection as open, objective and professional.

A structural reform remains under discussion. In March 2025 the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs put a proposal to Komisi I of the DPR to merge TVRI, RRI and Antara into a unified multiplatform public broadcasting institution. The concept of combining TVRI and RRI into a single body, Radio Televisi Republik Indonesia, has circulated since the 2010s. No merger had been enacted as of August 2026.

Source of funding and budget

Indonesian legislation permits TVRI several funding streams: broadcasting fees, national and regional budget allocations, public contributions, advertising and other lawful broadcasting-related business. In practice the broadcasting fee has never been implemented and public contributions remain negligible, leaving TVRI overwhelmingly dependent on public funding.

For 2026, TVRI reported an initial DIPA ceiling of IDR 1.159 trillion, of which IDR 6.04 billion in allocation derived from non-tax state revenue was temporarily blocked, leaving an effective regular budget of IDR 1.153 trillion. Additional budget support was provided for World Cup broadcasting. Earlier allocations were IDR 1.1 trillion in 2020, IDR 1.6 trillion in 2022 and a ceiling of IDR 1.573 trillion for 2024.

Despite stated intentions to introduce mixed-source funding and reduce reliance on the national budget, no substantive progress towards an independent financing model was identified. Facing fiscal constraints, TVRI announced in early 2025 that it would stop contracting new contributors and freelancers, and around 100 of its 402 contributors were temporarily stood down. Following parliamentary intervention, TVRI reversed the measure and said the contributors could return to work.

Under the State Media Matrix, the ISFM category applies to organisations that are state-funded and state-managed but editorially independent in practice. Budgetary dependence is therefore consistent with the classification rather than in tension with it; what the category turns on is editorial conduct.

Editorial independence

Formal safeguards exist. The governing regulation defines a public broadcasting institution as independent and neutral, requires the Supervisory Board to oversee the independence and neutrality of broadcasts, and, under PP 4/2024, prohibits parties other than the Directors from interfering in TVRI’s operations. The question is whether those safeguards hold in practice.

Assessments obtained for State Media Monitor from Indonesian journalists and media observers in March 2024 found that, while TVRI sometimes sought greater editorial balance, it remained susceptible to political pressure, particularly around elections and sensitive policy initiatives.

Editorial performance nonetheless improved materially in the years that followed. TVRI broadened regional news coverage, substantially increased political debate programming, and invested in digital innovation. It played a prominent role in countering disinformation during the 2024 general elections and aired hundreds of local and national debates that year, a move away from government echo-chamber programming towards more inclusive public discourse. On that basis, State Media Monitor reclassified TVRI in 2025 from State-Controlled to ISFM, supported by anonymised interviews with TVRI journalists conducted in March 2025 which corroborated increasing operational and editorial autonomy.

That assessment no longer holds. On 3 August 2026, Deputy Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Angga Raka Prabowo described TVRI as an “instrument of the state” and told its leadership that the broadcaster should translate current state policy into its editorial policy, programmes and content. The statement was issued through the Ministry’s own official channels.

Under the State Media Monitor methodology, public statements by government officials expressing an intention to align an outlet’s editorial line with government constitute Tier 1 evidence of state editorial control. This is not an inference drawn from coverage patterns or an assessment of tone: it is a senior official of the supervising ministry publicly instructing the national broadcaster to make government policy its editorial policy.

The statement stands in direct contradiction to TVRI’s own legal framework. The governing regulation defines a public broadcasting institution as independent and neutral, requires the Supervisory Board to oversee the independence and neutrality of broadcasts, and, under PP 4/2024, prohibits parties other than the Directors from interfering in TVRI’s operations. That a deputy minister issued such an instruction notwithstanding those provisions is itself evidence of how much protection they afford in practice.

Significant accountability gaps also remain. TVRI still lacks a formal audience council, an independent ombudsman and third-party editorial audits, mechanisms commonly used by public broadcasters to safeguard independence and reinforce public trust.

AI and digital policy

TVRI is actively experimenting with and deploying artificial intelligence in broadcasting. It stated in February 2026 that AI was already being used across various programmes, and in July 2026 publicly discussed its use for transcription, translation, subtitling, metadata generation and archive digitisation, while calling for clear governance, transparency, protection of intellectual property and preservation of content integrity.

As of August 2026, however, State Media Monitor did not identify a publicly accessible TVRI-specific editorial policy setting binding rules for generative AI, synthetic media, AI-assisted production, verification or disclosure to audiences.

Classification rationale

TVRI is reclassified from Independent State-Funded and State-Managed/Owned Media (ISFM) to State-Controlled (SC) for 2026, reversing the reclassification made in 2025. It meets all three conditions of the State Media Matrix.

It is predominantly state-funded. The broadcasting fee provided for in Law No. 32/2002 has never been implemented and public contributions remain negligible. TVRI’s 2026 DIPA ceiling was IDR 1.159 trillion, an effective IDR 1.153 trillion after a temporary block on non-tax revenue allocation, with additional support for World Cup broadcasting. No progress towards an independent financing model was identified.

It is state-owned and state-governed. TVRI is a public broadcasting institution whose Supervisory Board is established by the President on the proposal of the People’s Representative Council. That the board rather than the government appoints the Directors, and that the June 2026 executive selection was conducted competitively, are relevant to the quality of the appointment process, but the governing structure itself is constituted by the state, which is what the Matrix’s governance condition tests.

Its editorial agenda is subject to state control. On 3 August 2026 a Deputy Communication and Digital Affairs Minister publicly described TVRI as an instrument of the state and directed that it translate state policy into its editorial policy, programmes and content. SMM methodology treats public statements expressing an intention to align an outlet’s editorial line with government as Tier 1 evidence of editorial control, and this statement is unusually explicit: it names editorial policy, programmes and content directly, and was issued through the ministry’s official channels by an official of the supervising department.

On the reversal. The 2025 reclassification to ISFM was defensible on the evidence then available. TVRI had broadened regional coverage, substantially increased political debate programming, aired hundreds of election debates and played a prominent role in countering disinformation during the 2024 general elections, and anonymised interviews with its journalists in March 2025 corroborated growing operational autonomy. ISFM is a conduct-based category: it describes organisations that are state-funded and state-managed but editorially independent in practice, so those findings were the right basis for the move.

Conduct-based classifications are, however, reversible on conduct-based evidence, and the August 2026 statement is evidence of exactly the kind the methodology identifies. TVRI’s demonstrated editorial improvements are not disputed here, and the formal safeguards in PP 4/2024 remain on the statute book. But an explicit ministerial instruction to align editorial output with state policy cannot coexist with a finding that the outlet’s editorial agenda is free of state control, and the safeguards did not prevent the instruction being issued.

August 2026