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revision of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law is urgently needed as an important step toward protecting the public's right to freedom of expression, several organizations agreed in a discussion Monday in Jakarta.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI), the Press Council, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Press Legal Aid Institute and the Indonesian blogger community will request that the House of Representatives revise the law's Article 27 on libel.

Law No. 11/2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) has become the subject of heated debate recently, after housewife Prita Mulyasari was charged with violating the libel article when she complained over the Internet about the dismal service she had received at a hospital.

Press Legal Aid chairman Hendrayana said, "Libel interpretation is very subjective and hard to assess; having libel articles in the law is akin to giving law enforcers a blank check."

He said articles on defamation were found not only in the ITE law.

"There are 61 articles in our Criminal Code that could threaten our freedom of expression at any time."

There have been several libel cases related to publicized opinions, such as Khoe Seng Seng v. PT Duta Pertiwi, between late 2007 and early 2008. Four shop owners wrote letters to the editor to complain about property developer Duta Pertiwi, and were charged with libel, with the company suing them for Rp 17 billion (US$1.54 million).

The Press Council's Wina Armada said the defamation articles in the country's laws posed more of a threat to the public than colonial-era laws ever did.

Komnas HAM's Stanley Adi Prasetyo said the libel clauses in Article 27 of the ITE law were not in line with the Constitution, Law No. 39/1999 on Human Rights, Law No. 12/2005 on Ratification of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and also Law No. 29/2004 on medical practices.

Prita was sued by Omni International in Tangerang, Banten, in a civil court after complaining about the hospital's treatment of her, and lost the case.

Stanley said Komnas HAM would encourage Prita to countersue the hospital.

Enda Nasution, a blogger who has also built blogs for the Indonesian public, said there were worries within the blogging community.

"Since these libel articles are incredibly subjective, we can never be sure when we cross the line," he said.

He added that even though no blogger had been taken to court for airing their opinions, there had been cases where they were intimidated or reported to the police.