From: pacific_media_watch-bounces@lists.apc.org.au [mailto:pacific_media_watch-bounces@lists.apc.org.au] On Behalf Of Pacific Media Watch nius
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 5:43 PM
To: Pacific Media Watch
Subject: [Pacific_media_watch] 6248 INDONESIA: 'Freedom of speech' casestuns journalists
Date – 19 May 2009
Byline – None
Origin – Pacific Media Watch
Source – The Australian, 18/05/09
Copyright – TA
Status – Unabridged
----------------------------
* Pacific Media Watch Online - check the website for archive and links:
www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
* Post a comment on this story at PMW Right of Reply:
www.pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com
pmc@aut.ac.nz
INDONESIA'S APPROACH TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH
www.theaustralian.news.com.au
By Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
JAKARTA (TA Online/Pacific Media Watch): A ruling in Indonesia's
Constitutional Court has the country's journalists up in arms,
after the nine-member bench found that criminal prosecutions for
defamation were a reasonable means of defending "human rights".
The Association of Independent Journalists, one of the parties
that brought the test case, was outraged, declaring immediately
afterwards that Indonesia's approach to freedom of speech was
retrograde.
"This ruling proves that judges wish to keep the old paradigm
intact, despite the fact that in many countries criminal
defamation has been scrapped," the association's chairman, Nezar
Patria, said after the ruling last Tuesday. "The most
contemporary legal approaches to defamation are that it is not a
crime, but a civil case."
The law allows for six years' jail or 1 billion rupiah
($128,000) fines for "distributing, transmitting or making
available access to electronic information or documents that
contain insults or defamatory content".
The matter has long been a thorny one in Indonesia, where
defamation cases have since 1999 been able to be heard as civil
matters but, since the offence also still stands under the
country's criminal code, more often end up as criminal trials.
In the old days of Suharto's rule, criminal defamation
provisions were an effective means of suppressing dissent -- one
of many when it came to press freedoms. But under a new press
law enacted after the dictator's 1998 fall, along with the
establishment of a Press Council supposedly meant to adjudicate
in complaints including defamation, the idea was to move to a
system more supportive of free speech. The notion has never
really taken off, however, with complainants usually more
inclined to go the criminal route, even when they do win
retractions or apologies via the Press Council.
The passing of a secondary law in 2008 regarding "electronic
information and transactions" caught the Indonesian journalism
world by surprise, containing as it did unexpected further
criminal provisions for defamation proceedings.
These provisions reinforced for many the holdover rules from the
general criminal rules which had, for instance, resulted in a
six-month sentence served last year by the editor of a newspaper
in central Java.
He was convicted after a defamation case brought against him by
a rival editor.
Last August, the court threw out an application to review the
articles in the criminal code that allowed such prosecutions.
And in this month's decision, relating specifically to
electronic publishing laws, the bench further found government
should be "allowed to limit or regulate the press so that its
freedom does not violate human rights".
Both findings appeared to contradict a landmark 2007 finding, in
the same court, which struck down provisions for criminal
prosecution of defamation against members of the Government. The
journalists association's Nezar Patria said his own profession
was partly to blame over last week's finding "for not having
paid more attention to the case".
In a twist to the saga, Indonesian bloggers, the very people
whom the law on "electronic information" might be thought to
most apply, have been celebrating the decision. That's because
it also stipulated that bloggers "have a role the same as that
of the press; that is, they are a form of popular sovereignty
which is based on the principles of democracy, justice and the
rule of law".
Ong Hock Chuan, a Malaysian blogger who has operated out of
Jakarta for years, said the blogging community had largely
reacted with enthusiasm to the notion that its members were
regarded in law as being on the same level as journalists.
"Although I'm not sure that's entirely the case, since surely
you still need professional journalists for something," he said.
* Comment on this item www.pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com
+++niuswire
PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH ONLINE
www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is a media and educational resource compiled by the AUT Pacific Media Centre for the Pacific region.
(c)1996-2009 Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org
Items are provided solely for review purposes as a non-profit educational service. Copyright remains the property of the original producers as indicated in the header. Recipients should seek permission
from the copyright owner for any publishing. Copyright owners not wishing their materials to be posted by PMW please contact us. The views expressed in material listed by PMW are not necessarily the views
of PMW or the Pacific Media Centre.
For further information or joining the Pacific Media Watch listserve, go to:
http://lists.apc.org.au/listinfo.cgi/pacific_media_watch?apc.org.au
Email:
pmc@aut.ac.nz
Fax: (+649) 921 9987
SnailMail: Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, AUT
University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, Aotearoa/New Zealand
Website: www.pmw.c2o.org
_______________________________________________
Pacific_media_watch mailing list
Pacific_media_watch@lists.apc.org.au
0 comments:
Post a Comment