Camelia Pasandaran – Media analysts and open-government advocates warned on Thursday that the state secrecy bill now before the House of Representatives would prevent journalists from doing their jobs.

Press Council member Abdullah Alamudi said the proposed law would hamper journalists because they would continually run into "a wall called 'state secret.'"

"Laws should protect citizens and not limit their rights," he said during a formal discussion on the bill conducted by the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI).

Abdullah claimed that the state budget could be classified as a state secret under the proposed law. "If we cannot access the state or regional budgets, journalists will find it hard to open a corruption case," he said.

Abdullah also complained about the bill's vague definition of "state secret." "The definition of state secret is not clear enough," he said. "The bureaucracy could use the unclear definition to classify lots of information as state secrets."

Ahmad Faisol, ISAI's media watch coordinator, said journalists would be the first victims of the bill, which he added should be revised before being put to a vote. "The proposed law could send journalists to prison with the accusation of spreading information that is categorized as a state secret," he said.

Under the proposed law, journalists could be jailed for up to 20 years for revealing a state secret to the public and be fined up to Rp 1 billion ($100,000). If the country were at war, the punishment could include the death penalty.

Daniel Dhakidae, a senior researcher at the Institute of Economic and Social Studies and Development, said the bill conflicted with existing laws on government openness.

For example, he said, "the state secret bill is inconsistent with the Public Information Openness Law." Daniel said researchers and university lecturers would also be affected by the law.