Jakarta – Just a few weeks after its establishment, the Antipornography Task Force is touting its first achievement: blocking pornography on the Internet.
The task force's achievement, however, came with certain caveats, according to one official.
"We block websites with domain names that contain the words 'porn' or 'sex'. However, there are also websites that hide their identity and pornographic content by using other names," Communications and Information Ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewa Broto said on Monday. "We do not have a system that is able to detect those websites," he added.
In the task force's first meeting on Monday, Gatot said that the task force had collaborated with 188 Internet service providers (ISPs) in Indonesia to block "pornographic" websites.
"About 80 percent of the ISPs are located in Jakarta. We also have worked with the Association of Indonesian Internet Cafes to install pornography filters."
Failure to block pornography would lead to prosecution under the 2008 Pornographic Law and 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction Law, Gatot said.
In what critics said was an attempt to distract critics from corruption scandals implicating his Democratic Party, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono established the task force on March 13 to implement the 2008 Pornography Law.
At the meeting on Monday, the task force's operations chief, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, said that a second team would be created to draw up a five-year plan and conduct operations against pornography.
The team will consist of 30 members from several ministries, government agencies, religious organizations, universities and private institutions.
The team will also make regulations as a legal basis for task forces at the regional and local level. Each province and regency in Indonesia will have its own task force under its local officials. The deputy religious affairs minister will lead the second team.
"We have written to the ministries and relevant agencies to submit the names of their representatives within the next 10 days. To select academics and practitioners, we will conduct a separate selection process. We don't have any names yet," Suryadharma said.
He said funds for the team's operations would come from the Religious Affairs Ministry's budget. In the meeting, Attorney General Basrie Arief said that the Attorney General's Office handled 58 pornography-related cases in 2011, most of which were in East Kalimantan.
The KPI said that in 2011 it had sent reprimands to nine private television stations for broadcasting explicit sexual content.
Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring was named a member of the task force, as was Coordinating People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Gumelar, Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin, Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh, Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, Industry Minister MS Hidayat, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu.
Also on the task force are Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedya-ningsih, Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri, Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, Attorney General Basrie Arief, Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) head Dadang Rahmat and Film Censorship Board head Mukhlis Paeni. (tas)