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Four Indonesian Cabinet members testified Friday that no rules were violated in the distribution of government aid during the recent election campaign, despite claims by the two losing presidential candidates that it was used for the benefit of the election winner. Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto won the election with 58.6% of the votes, or more than 96 million ballots, more than twice the amount received by each of the two runner-ups in the three-way race, according to the General Election Commission. The losing candidates former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo say the election was marred by irregularities and are asking the Constitutional Court to annul the results and order a revote in separate lawsuits. They say Subianto's victory was the result of widespread fraud and that outgoing President Joko Widodo and his administration bent laws and norms to support Subianto, with government social aid used as a tool to buy votes. Indonesian .
The government has directed social media and online platforms to ensure that they do not host advertisements of fraudulent loan apps, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. Chandrasekhar said the IT ministry has made it clear to the platforms that they cannot carry fraudulent loan apps as those are misleading and exploit people using the internet. "One of the areas we are now cracking down on is advertising of fraudulent loan apps that many platforms are carrying and we have, through yesterday's advisory, made it clear that no intermediary can carry advertisements of fraudulent loan apps because it will be misleading and exploits people who are using the internet," the Minister of State for Electronics and IT said on the sidelines of an event. Jurisprudence and government approach on safe and trusted internet is evolving, he said adding that IT rules clearly specify 11 areas of prohibited content.
The government on Tuesday said it had spent Rs 967.46 crore through the Central Bureau of Communication for publicity of its schemes in the print media from 2019-20 to 2023-24. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC) releases awareness/publicity campaigns through print media in accordance with the Print Media Advertisement Policy, 2020. "The details of expenditure incurred by CBC, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, on awareness/publicity campaigns about schemes and programmes of the government of India through print media from 2019-20 to 2023-24 (till 12.12.2023) is Rs 967.46 crore," Thakur said. The minister said as of March 31, 2019, 1,19,995 periodicals, including newspapers, were registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). The number was 1,43,423 in 2020, 1,44,520 in 2021, 1,46,045 in 2022 and 1,48,363 in 2023.
The government spent Rs 3,339.49 crore on advertisements in the print and electronic media over a five-year period from 2017, Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. In a written reply, Thakur said the government had spent Rs 1,756.48 crore on advertisements in the print media from 2017-18 till July 12 this year. The expenditure on advertisements in the electronic media in the same period was Rs 1,583.01 crore. The expenditure was incurred by the government through the Central Bureau of Communication, Thakur said. The minister said there was no expenditure incurred by any ministry or department of the government on advertisements in foreign media through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.