Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

Media freedom is still threatened
Most of both mainstream and local media I met in
interviews in Indonesia felt and enjoyed the freedom
that is only seven years old. Only one year after
the decline of Suharto, both the press and e-media
mushroomed to celebrate the withdrawal of media
control tools like the licenses for publishing presses
(SIUPP) that were used as political tools in the past.
A number of newspapers mentioned above were
closed down by this tool. Another thing was the push
for the Press Law 40/1999 and Broadcast Law 2002.
However, media freedom is still threatened by other
laws like the Criminal Law that the Government uses
to censor press that criticizes and examines the work of
the state or uncovers the corruption of politicians and
businessmen and their relatives. Though liberated from
the autocracy, they are threatened by the Criminal Law.
Many media organizations like the Press Council, the
Indonesian Newspaper Publishers Association (SPS),
the Indonesian Press & Broadcast Society (MPPI), and
the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) are joining
to push for the abolishment of this law.
The Criminal Code has been the law since Dutch
Colonial days, and there are a numbers of rules that
can be used to detain or fine the mass media. Here are
some details of the law quoted from an article written
by Abdullah Alamudi:
“The bill has 49 articles that can send journalists to prison,
12 more than the current draconian laws drafted by the
Dutch colonial masters in 1917. At least nine of the 49
articles carry clauses that can ban a person for life from
carrying out his or her profession. The current Criminal
Law has only two such articles and they have never been
used, even during the colonial era. All 49 articles violate
the people’s right of expression, right of speech, and press
freedom enshrined by the Constitution in article 28 F (2 nd
Amendment). It tramples over the doctrine of political
communication upheld by the Constitution and Article
XIX of the UN Charter.
Articles 262, 263 and 264 of the bill stipulate that anyone
who insults the president or the vice president in public
can be imprisoned for five years. That person may also be
banned for life from carrying out his/her profession if he/she
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repeats a similar crime within two years of the sentencing.
This is only one example of the many such ‘rubber’ articles.
Article 284 and 285 stipulate that anyone who insults
the government can be jailed up to three years and be
banned for life from carrying out his/her profession. A
journalist may be jailed for one year and banned for life
from carrying out his/her profession if he/she ‘publishes lies
or uncertain reports that cause a disturbance among the
public.’ The Bill raises more confusion on the definition
of ‘pornography’ than providing a clear legal meaning
of the word. If stipulates that anyone may be charged
with violating pornography laws—which carry sentences
between five and 12 years— under articles 469 to 473.
The articles carry scores of categories considered
pornography, for example, ‘writing and articles of
producing voice or recorded audio or audio visual material
or those that can be regarded similar to film, lyrics, poems,
pictures, photographs and/or paintings, which exploit the
attractiveness of: a certain sensual part of an adult’s body,
general nudity, body or parts of body of an erotic dancer or
erotic movement…,’ etc.
So all of you dangdut fans, hip-shaking Jaipongan dancer
(West Java) and Balinese dancers, you had better beware!
The same warning goes to artists and painters of Balinese
beauty, watch out! You can be charged with violating one
or more articles of the law and end up in jail.” 1
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows