Hidden advertising in local Election era:Reducing the public’s right of Information and critical power of media in Indonesia

The article aims to explore hidden advertising phenomenon in the era of local election in East Java. Based on the Indonesia constitution (UUD) 1945 article 28 which is implemented in the Act No 40/1999 about the principles of press and the Act No 32/2002 about broadcasting, it is stated that society has the right to obtain information. In implementing its function to fulfil the society’s right of information, media should be professional. Hidden advertisingis a phenomenon in which news mixed with advertising. News is not objective anymore but only telling sponsorship interest. The research conducts deep interviews with some senior journalists in Malang Regency to understand the pattern of news production in order to reveal hidden advertising phenomenon. The results portray that some of newspapers producing news which are mixed by other interests. It can be concluded that the economic aspect of media affect the quality of the news. The research also proves that hidden advertising news between media and political elites will lead to degradation of good governance quality.