Cyber law worries bloggers

Tifa Asrianti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 04/07/2008 11:16 AM  |  Headlines

In a meeting organized by the British Council on Friday, bloggers expressed concerns the new law on electronic information and transaction could make them susceptible to charges of defamation.

Blogger Enda Nasution said bloggers were being more careful now as the law opened up possibilities of prosecution for providing "sensitive" content about public figures and certain issues on their sites.

"Bloggers can get in trouble by just linking to a website containing defamation. In an indirect way, the law bans freedom of expression," Enda said.

After two years of deliberation, the House of Representatives passed the Electronic Information and Transaction Law last month, which prohibits citizens from distributing slander in any electronic format. Perpetrators can get a maximum of six years in prison or a fine of Rp 1 billion (US$107,526).

The law also prohibits any kind of pornography, gambling, blackmail, lies, threats and racist comments.

Another blogger, Wicaksono, said the blogosphere could not be separated from opinions. Therefore, there would always be people who liked or disliked the content and the government should not levy criminal charges against people based on subjective judgments.

"In developed countries, the government lets the communities make regulations to organize themselves. Besides, in other countries, libel is no longer a criminal matter but a civil matter," Wicaksono said.

He said it was bloggers themselves who should make a regulation on expression.

Blogger Raditya Dika said he recently deleted two posts after friends warned him about the defamation articles in the cyber law. One of the posts he took off was a parody of a local election containing deformed photos of the running candidates.

"Even if no cyber law existed, bloggers should always be careful what they say in their blogs because it may offend other people's feelings," he said.

Asmara Letizia said that no law was supposed to regulate how people expressed opinions.

"So far, I haven't deleted anything I have posted in my blogs. I believe we have to be responsible and consistent on what we have said. We can still protest other people as long as we can do it in an unoffending way," she said.

"I think the government should pay more attention to copyright issues because there are cases in which people take blog content from blogs but do not attribute the authors."

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