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Prita to talk at 2009 blogger community get-together

In a show of support, Indonesia's blogger community Pesta Blogger 2009 will invite Prita Mulyasari to talk at their annual get-together, noted blogger Enda Nasution says

Prodita Sabarini (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, October 17, 2009 Published on Oct. 17, 2009 Published on 2009-10-17T13:15:07+07:00

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I

n a show of support, Indonesia's blogger community Pesta Blogger 2009 will invite Prita Mulyasari to talk at their annual get-together, noted blogger Enda Nasution says.

Prita, a mother of two, has been charged for allegedly defaming Omni International Hospital in an email. As public attention on her case has dwindled, Enda said on Friday that the blogging community had decided to invite her to talk at their annual forum to show their support for her.

Prita's case received wide media coverage in June, after she was detained in a state penitentiary for three weeks. A public outcry forced the authorities to reduce her detention to a house arrest.

Enda said that Prita would attend a panel on ethics in an online environment. The 2009 Pesta Blogger event, to be held on Oct. 24, will be the Indonesian blogger community's third annual gathering. Last year, more than 1,000 bloggers from across Indonesia came to the event.

"Even though Prita is not a blogger, she is part of the Internet society. We want to show her our support," Enda said over the phone.

A Facebook group supporting Prita has already reached more than 300,000 members.

Yet, Enda said that the intensity of support for Prita had decreased, and bringing Prita to Pesta Blogger was an attempt to maintain public support for her.

Prita's legal battle continues as the Banten High Court ordered the Tangerang District Court to reopen the case. Previously, the court had bowed to public pressure and decided to drop all charges against Prita.

The Banten High Court's decision to reopen the case is based on the premise that the court's verdict only explained why Article 27 of the ITE law had been dropped from the prosecutors' charges, not why two Criminal Code articles had been dropped too from the charges.

Five NGOs - the Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association (PBHI), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) and the Indonesia Media Defense Litigation Network (IMDLN) - that work on legal aid and human rights filed an amicus curiae (a brief filed by someone who is not a party to a case) to the court this week.

PBHI coordinator of the human rights division Anggara said on Friday that the brief would provide the panel of judges with their view on the legal and human rights aspect of the charges.

Anggara said similar briefs had been filed in two high-profile cases on freedom of expression including the Time Vs Soeharto case. He expressed hope their brief would influence the court's decision.

Meanwhile, Juliana Dharmadi a plaintiff against Omni, plans to travel to Australia with her legal representatives to gather evidence on alleged negligence by an Omni doctor.

Juliana said she gave birth to premature twins at Omni in May last year. Her sons developed an eye condition known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which many medical institutions, including one in Australia, believe is caused by exposure to high levels of oxygen in incubators. One of the twins is now blind.

Juliana will meet doctors at a Sydney children's hospital in charge of her sons' medication.

"My legal team will hold an interview with them about my son's case," Juliana said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

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