The Jakarta Globe reported on March 5 that a private radio station Era Baru in Batam, Riau Islands Province of Indonesia has now brought a suit against the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the East Jakarta State Administrative Court because of the ministry declined to grant the radio station a broadcasting license and terminated its operations.

The radio station denied it had used its facilities to support the interests of the China-based Falun Gong spiritual movement on March 4, 2009.

KPI member Mochamad Riyanto said the station's on-air content and violation of limits on foreign language programming were the reasons for the denial.

Gatot confirmed that Era Baru had aired its programs in Chinese since it started broadcasting — prior to the KPI issuing in 2007 a regulation limiting foreign language content to 30 percent of total programming.

A provincial broadcasting commission official also said that Era Baru aired 90 percent of its programs in Chinese, a violation of the 60 percent cap imposed by the commission.

Communications Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto on Wednesday denied there was any embassy involvement in the ministry's license refusal, which he said was for technical reasons.

(Facts.org.cn, March 10, 2009)