Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The "Defending Islam" rallies centered recently in Jakarta have been widely perceived as a clear sign of a change in Indonesia's brand of Islam, which has heretofore

Fachrul Sidiq, Jakarta – In an attempt to eradicate the dissemination of fake news and other harmful contents from cyberspace, the Indonesian government will continue with its plan to block website

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Tama Salim, Haeril Halim and Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government has streamlined procedures for handling asylum seekers, clearing stumbling blocks that had earlier hindered them from enter

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Thomas Ora, Dili, Timor Leste – Nothing unusual happened when Aitarak – not his real name – moved from Timor-Leste to Malang in Indonesia's East Java province to study law, three years before the c

Fachrul Sidiq, Jakarta – The Communications and Information Ministry has highlighted the right of social media giant Twitter to suspend accounts as it sees fit, including those of the Islam Defende

Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – National Police chief Gen.

Arya Dipa, Bandung, West Java – Hundreds of members of mass organization Gerakan Masyarakat Bawah Indonesia (Indonesian General Society Movement, or GMBI) have urged the government to immediately t

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Fachrul Sidiq, Jakarta – The government needs to re-evaluate the possible use of chemical castration on those who commit sex crimes against children, as regulated in the newly passed 2016 Child Pro

Recent reports of a suspension of military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia were wildly exaggerated, but they emphasise the importance of proper intercountry linguistic, cultural and pol

Dili (AFP) – East Timor will hold a presidential election on March 20, an official said on Wednesday (Jan 18), and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta may try to make a comeback as head of state.

Jakarta – MNC Group tycoon Hary Tanoesodibjo has arrived in Washington DC to attend the inauguration of the 45th US president, Donald Trump, on Jan.

Bernardo Almeida, Todd Wassel – Voters in Timor-Leste will head to the polls twice this year for presidential elections in March and parliamentary elections in July – in what will be the first such

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has inaugurated the former Defense Ministry's inspector general, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, as the new Air Force chief of staff, replac

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – A lawyer defending Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said the governor's legal defense team would refuse to continue the hearings in its client's b

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – Lawyers of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama concluded that "the trial by mob" against the non-active governor that had started since the beginning

Andreas Harsono – Indonesia's Ministry of Law and Human Rights this week defended the fundamental right to privacy in a Constitutional Court case hinging on a petition to criminalize adult consensu

Fachrul Sidiq, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has revealed that of all institutions, the police were implicated in the highest number of human rights violation cases

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Jakarta – Lawyers for Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama reported Islamic Defender's Front, or FPI, secretary general Novel Chaidir Hasan for allegedly defaming Ahok and presenting fals

Jakarta – Indonesian Chief Minister of Security, Political and Legal affairs Wiranto called upon the public here on Monday not to hold frequent public demonstrations.

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – Lawyers of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama refused to continue the sixth hearing of Ahok's blasphemy trial on Tuesday due to prosecutors' failure

Grace D. Amianti, Jakarta – Indonesia saw its external debt continue to grow slowly last November as companies reduced foreign loan, Bank Indonesia (BI) data has showed.

Suherdjoko, Semarang, Central Java – Supporters of Jaringan Masyarakat Peduli Pegunungan Kendeng, a movement that rejects the development of a cement factory belonging to state-run cement maker Sem

Jakarta – Mahfud M.D., former chairman of the Constitutional Court, said that edicts issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, are not binding, unless they have been translated into law.

Jakarta – National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has called on all parties to resist from exploiting edicts issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – A cross-sector meeting on border management led by Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo on Tuesday raised again a controversial plan to deploy military personnel to various areas outs

Indra Budiari, Jakarta – Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's blasphemy trial continued on Tuesday with a police officer who received a report of Ahok's alleged blasphemy submitted by a

Jakarta – Petrus Selestinus, coordinator of a team of lawyers called the Team of Defenders of Indonesian Democracy, or TPDI, has called on National Police chief Gen.

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) has slammed the blocking and suspension of three Twitter accounts affiliated with the conservative group.

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Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab has called on the National Police to question ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati S

Willem van der Muur – Three years have already passed since the Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled that indigenous adat forests are not part of state-owned forest.

Jakarta – The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) believes the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) has gone too far in disrupting the party's provision of free medical services in West J

Jakarta – The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has returned fire at the leader of conservative Muslim group the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), Rizieq Shihab, after he threatened

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) has called on lawmakers to push the National Police to investigate two of its high-ranking officers over alleged partiality in handl

Ratri M. Siniwi, Jakarta – HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world, has been accused of funding deforestation in Indonesia by environmental group Greenpeace International.

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Jakarta – Although the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) denied any involvement of its sympathizers in a recent attack on the office of a mass organization in Ciampea, Bogor, West Java Police chief Insp.

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Thursday opened the four-day Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police leaders meeting at TNI headquarters in Jakarta, instructing the

Frank Brennan – Without any media fanfare, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop published a statement on 9 January 2017 announcing that Australia and Timor Leste had agreed to terminate the 2006 Treaty on

Jayapura, Papua – The Indonesian military plans to develop rice fields in the remote district of Nabire in the country's eastern province of Papua this year.

Timor-Leste goes to the polls in 2017 with little in the way of a genuine policy debate. The political scene is dominated by former revolutionary leaders and the jostling between them.

Jakarta – Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said on Monday (16/01) the government intends to keep the current 3.5 percent parliamentary threshold in the Election Law, as the House Representatives

Hands up anyone who believes that the Sunrise gas project in the waters that separate Australia from East Timor will be developed in their lifetime, a challenge that Slugcatcher extends to any chil

David Hutt – With much of the population living in poverty and oil wealth running dry, Timor-Leste's upcoming elections could be the public's most important decision since independence

Hendri Yulius – In the last year there have been consistent legal efforts to outlaw same-sex practices and LGBT identity in Indonesia.

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