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Experts call for blasphemy articles to be removed from ITE Law
Free bird: Erviani Emi Handayani (right), 29, embraces one of her neighbors outside the Bantul District Court in Yogyakarta in January, 2015
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Free bird: Erviani Emi Handayani (right), 29, embraces one of her neighbors outside the Bantul District Court in Yogyakarta in January, 2015. Erviani was on trial for posting critical comments on Facebook about her husbandâs supervisor. The court rejected the charges filed against Erviani. (JP/Slamet Susanto) (right), 29, embraces one of her neighbors outside the Bantul District Court in Yogyakarta in January, 2015. Erviani was on trial for posting critical comments on Facebook about her husbandâs supervisor. The court rejected the charges filed against Erviani. (JP/Slamet Susanto)
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span class="caption">Free bird: Erviani Emi Handayani (right), 29, embraces one of her neighbors outside the Bantul District Court in Yogyakarta in January, 2015. Erviani was on trial for posting critical comments on Facebook about her husband's supervisor. The court rejected the charges filed against Erviani. (JP/Slamet Susanto)
The government has been urged to carry out comprehensive revision of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law by removing the pasal karet (catchall articles), particularly Article 27, Paragraph 3 of the law, which is seen as having been repeatedly used by those in power to silence critics.
Safenet regional coordinator Damar Juniarto said that the catchall or widely interpretable articles of the law that refer to blasphemy were often misused by certain interests. 'The people who use those articles are those who hold power and those who have access to power, while the victims are common people,' said Damar as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday.
The government has officially submitted a bill to revise Law No 11/2008, the ITE Law, to the House of Representatives, but human rights activists have criticized the government for attempting to retain the law's Article 27, Paragraph 3.
Therefore, Damar expressed the hope that the government and the House of Representatives would remove all ambiguous articles, including Article 27, when they debated the revision of the law.
Meanwhile, Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) research and networking division head Asep Komarudin shared Damar's opinion that there was no need for the ITE Law to include articles on blasphemy, an offense already covered by the Criminal Code (Kuhap).
'It is regrettable that Article 27, Paragraph 3 is maintained in the revision bill, given that we have long called for its removal. It is a duplication of an article in the Criminal Code,' said Asep, adding that since the law had come into force, some 134 cases had been brought under the article in question.
According to Damar, the article is also frequently used by certain parties to take revenge against critics through social media, and could deter whistle-blowing.
Therefore, he called on the government and the House to return the cyber law to its initial objective, namely to regulate electronic transactions. (bbn)(+)
