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Planned cyber law revisions won't fix free speech issues, rights body says
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Demonstrators rally outside the State Palace on Jan. 8, 2019, to demand that the government abolish articles in the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law that they considered a threat to the freedom of expression. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he government's proposed revisions to the contentious Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law will not be enough to stop undue state infringements on the right to free speech, a study by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has found.
On Wednesday, Komnas HAM released the findings of a study, involving independent experts, on the proposed changes.
The government is pushing for a partial revision of the law to introduce a stricter definition of online defamation. The provisions as they stand have long been criticized by activists for their use in curbing free speech and silencing government critics.
The draft revision would make online defamation criminal only in cases where the speech in question was found to have “the intent to harm an individual's honor”.
But this, according to researcher Cekli Pratiwi, who is also a human rights lecturer at Muhammadiyah University in Malang, East Java, could still be used to silence critics.
She said the provisions on hate speech remained vague and "very subjective".
"Overall, the proposed changes might not solve the fundamental problem in the ITE Law: the criminalization of free speech," Cekli said.
