Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – An alliance of legal aid associations, the media, bloggers and non-governmental organizations is looking forward to filing judicial reviews of the newly endorsed law on electronic information and transaction.
The alliance agrees the law contains some articles "against civil liberty and privacy rights", with its ruling over "electronic documents with contents violating decency" and those "containing defamation".
"In general, let's say 80 percent of the law is OK. The problem is that it rules on a couple of things that don't need to be regulated," Anggara, representing a blogger community, said Tuesday at a forum organized by the Indonesia Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).
He agreed Indonesia needed a cyberlaw, but added it should be aimed at regulating business and economic transactions, rather than restricting citizens' privacy or civil liberties.
Asep Komarudin from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said endorsements of the law were evidence of government attempts to avoid being scrutinized by the media, NGOs and the public.
Supi from the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) said one could face heavy charges merely from writing critiques, jokes or anything in mailing lists or blogs. Therefore, he said, the law threatened freedom of expression.
The law, which was passed by the House of Representatives last month, says "anyone who deliberately and without rights distributes and/or transmits and/or makes accessible electronic information and/or electronic documents containing defamation" will be subject to six months jail and maximum fines of Rp 1 billion (around US$108,696).
The same charges apply to those who "deliberately and without rights distributes and/or transmits and/or makes accessible electronic information and/or electronic documents with contents violating decency".
Anggara said he actually agreed pornography needed to be regulated in order to protect children. However, he said the law "failed to define who it was protecting" as adults are not allowed to access adult sites "regardless of their privacy rights".
Due to an unclear definition of "decency", Supi is concerned the law could be abused by law enforcers to charge people at any time.
"The law stipulates it will charge those who make the information 'accessible'. It means those having obscene documents in their notebooks or on their flash disks, who are not by any means distributing them, can be subject to the charges, too," he said.
The alliance is set to scrutinize the law and is planning to file judicial reviews on some "troubled articles" to the Constitutional Court, as the articles threaten activists, NGOs, bloggers and media.