JAKARTA • Indonesia’s largest Islamic movement, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is considering issuing an edict that would ban Muslims from producing or watching popular television gossip shows, an NU official said yesterday.

“It is still being debated and any final decision will have to be taken in a plenary later today,” said Ali Machsan Musa, head of NU’s East Java chapter.

Musa said the edict, if agreed by a congress of the organisation in Surabaya, capital of East Java, would declare it a sin for Muslims to produce or watch the gossip shows, known as infotainment news.

More than 40 gossip shows are broadcast weekly by the 11 television channels in what is the world’s largest Muslim country, the Jakarta Post daily said.