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ights and democracy activists have called on the government to scrap the articles on defamation in the 2008 Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law and the Criminal Code following recent cases involving the articles.

An antigraft activist in Semarang, Central Java, Ronny Maryanto, has been charged under Article 27 (3) of the ITE Law and Article 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code for allegedly defaming the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Fadli Zon.

Fadli, a Gerindra Party politician, reported Ronny for using an online story on merdeka.com to report alleged vote-buying by Fadli to the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu).

According to the news report, Fadli had distributed money to people during a campaign event for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto at a market in Semarang in July.

Wahyudi Djafar of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) said that the articles must be scrapped as they were too often used, particularly by public officials, to criminalize citizens.

'€œThe Human Rights Committee and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression have reiterated that a public official should not hide behind articles on defamation. He must be ready to face criticism of any kind,'€ he said.

Elsam and rights groups advocated the removal of the articles on defamation during the administration of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but to no avail.

In recent years, the controversial articles have been used to criminalize dozens of people, including housewife Prita Mulyasari, who wrote and circulated an email about the poor service she said she received from a hospital.

In the last two weeks, the defamation articles have been used to charge Brama Japon Janua, a security guard from Sidoardjo, East Java, and another man in Jakarta, Muhammad Arsyad.

Brama is accused of defaming Prabowo through his Facebook status, while Arsyad is accused of distributing doctored pornographic pictures that bore the faces of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said the force would proceed with both cases despite Prabowo and Jokowi having forgiven the suspects.

'€œThis period is a critical moment for the freedom of expression in Indonesia, where defamation charges have been used widely,'€ Wahyudi said.

Donny Budhi Utoyo, Information and Communication Technology Watch (ICT Watch) co-founder, said that since its enactment in 2008, the ITE Law had been utilized to process 68 defamation cases, 38 of them this year alone. '€œWe urge the government to scrap Article 27 (3) of the ITE Law, or at least reduce its penalty from six years to less than five years in prison.'€

If facing a maximum sentence of less than five-years imprisonment, a suspect can evade detention until the court hands down the verdict, according to the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).

Responding to the demands, Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said there was no urgency to revise the ITE Law.

'€œThe law is aimed at protecting electronic transactions. In that context, the law has no problem,'€ the minister told The Jakarta Post.

Rudiantara said he would soon discuss the implementation of the law with the country'€™s law enforcement agencies.