JAKARTA - Indonesia’s media outlets have hailed a new regulation requiring digital platforms to pay them for content, which they hope will raise revenue and enable them to produce quality journalism.

The new publisher’s rights regulation, announced by President Joko Widodo on Feb 20, takes effect in August and aims to level the playing field between the media and big tech firms, which have garnered the lion’s share of advertising revenue.

Indonesia is the first country in Asia to introduce such a law, which has been adopted by Australia, Canada and several European countries.

Indonesian news outlets are expected to conclude content supply deals with digital platforms such as Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook by August.

Mr Wisnu Nugroho, chief editor of Jakarta-based Kompas.com, said he looks forward to “making business-to-business deals between digital platforms and publishers”, adding that these could give the news portal room to produce higher-quality content. 

Mr Yura Syahrul, chief editor of Jakarta-based news portal Katadata, also welcomed the new law. “It is long overdue. We have lost quite a lot of momentum to make gains from such regulation,” he said. 

Many Indonesian media outlets have suffered financially, especially during the pandemic when advertising revenue dropped, forcing them to downsize newsrooms and lay off journalists, he said.

Unlike most other media outlets in Indonesia, Katadata is subsidised by its affiliated business and research firm, Katadata Insight Centre.

Mr Yura said the news portal looks forward to further discussions with Google on firmer deals. Katadata has a collaboration with a search engine called Showcase – Google News. Under this arrangement, now in its second year, Katadata submits a certain number of news articles a day to Google, to be uploaded on this platform.

Google has paid only 25 per cent of the fee to Katadata, added Mr Yura, who declined to say how much the total fee was. But Google has committed to having talks on paying the full amount once the regulation comes into effect.

Mr Yura noted that Google is now facing competition from various free-to-use artificial intelligence systems, causing it to lose some of its users.

In an e-mail reply to The Straits Times’ queries, Google said it has already started to collaborate with news publishers, stressing that its aim is “to support and build a sustainable future for the news ecosystem in Indonesia”.

“We believe it is critically important that our products surface a diverse set of news and perspectives without prejudice or bias,” said the Google spokesperson. 

“Throughout this process, we have highlighted the need to ensure Indonesians have access to diverse sources of news and support a balanced news ecosystem – one that delivers quality news for everyone and allows news publishers, large and small, to thrive.”

Indonesia was home to 167 million social media users in January 2023, or about 60 per cent of its total population, according to Texas-based cyber-security technology company CrowdStrike.

Mr Usman Kansong, Indonesia’s director-general for information and public communication, said the procedures for payment will be drawn up by a committee tasked with overseeing the regulation’s implementation. 

“There will be guidelines, but they will not dictate rupiah figures,” he said, adding that a digital platform pays only for the content it posts, not the content uploaded by its users.

The committee will ensure digital platforms, supported by their algorithms, do their best to help promote quality journalism that has values in line with democracy, pluralism and existing laws.

Members of the committee comprise those appointed by the country’s independent Press Council (Dewan Pers), digital platform experts appointed by the government and a representative from a government ministry.

Mr Andreas Harsono, a journalist turned human rights activist, told ST: “It’s important for all parties in the committee to ensure that the funds are actually spent to support quality journalism, not to favour government-friendly media companies.” 

According to Mr Usman, the committee was mooted by the media and is aimed at promoting quality journalism. The committee, for example, would prevent digital platforms from being flooded by substandard journalistic content created by unaccredited media outlets. 

“Indonesia has 50,000 online media outlets, but only about 400 of them are accredited by the Press Council,” he said.