Jakarta – Prita Mulyasari, Khoe Seng Seng and Tukijo are ordinary people who have been branded criminals under the defamation law simply because they complained, a human rights report says.
Prita was arrested and tried on criminal defamation charges for an email she sent to her friends criticizing her treatment by doctors at an international hospital in Tangerang.
Jakarta resident Khoe Seng Seng was found guilty of criminal defamation in 2009 for reporting a developer to police for fraud and for making the same charges in letters to newspapers.
Tukijo, a farmer in Kulon Progo regency, Yogyakarta, was convicted of criminal defamation in January this year for asking a subdistrict head for information about the result of a land appraisal.
There are at least 14 more people critics say are being victimized by the criminal defamation law.
"The plaintiffs are mostly powerful people such as government officials, businessmen and politicians, while the accused are mostly workers, activists and journalists," Margiyono from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said Tuesday.
AJI said that in 2009, the number of defamation cases related to posts on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter doubled.
"Indonesia's defamation regulation is a cancer in our democracy," Illian Deta Arta Sari of Indonesia Corruption Watch said. "Democracy means citizens can question the government, it means that they are exercising public control of the state," she added.
Activists attending a discussion hosted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) into a report on the impact of the defamation law and other laws said that these cases were discriminative and structural in nature.
"We have filed three judicial reviews – including an ongoing one on the 2008 Information Law – with the Constitutional Court. The court rejected the two previous cases because of its conservatism," activist and legal expert Anggara said.
"The laws and their enforcement are inherently problematic," Elaine Pearson, the deputy director HRW's Asia division, said.
HRW has asked the House of Representatives, the President's Office, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry and the Communications and Information Technology Ministry to review the laws, Elaine said.
HRW released a report on Tuesday titled "Turning Critics into Criminals". The report covers the impact on human rights of the criminal defamation law in Indonesia to inform both the Indonesian and international communities, Elaine said.
"HRW has sent a letter to [Communications and Information Technology] Minister Tifatul Sembiring, but he has been too busy to meet with them," ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewa Broto told The Jakarta Post.
"Don't blame us or force the ministry to change the laws. That's the House's job," he said. Gatot said the ministry only provided input on the criminal defamation provisions in the 2008 Information Law and the 2002 Broadcasting Law. (ipa)