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Activists warn of ITE Law 'abuse' as Ahmad Dani convicted for hate speech
Human rights activists say that the law is "open to abuse" and could lead to restrictions on freedom of speech.
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Musician Ahmad Dhani Prasetyo gives a thumb up as he is sentenced to one year in prison for hate speech on June 11 at the Surabaya District Court. (Antara/Didik Suhartono)
R
ights groups have raised concerns over free speech in the country after musician Ahmad Dhani Prasetyo was sentenced to one year in prison on June 11 for calling his a group of people "idiots" in a vlog.
Several activists were especially troubled by what they viewed as an abuse of an article in the Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law that forbids the deliberate distribution of "electronic information and/or documents that contain insults and/or defamation”.
Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) executive director Anggara said in a statement that the Surabaya District Court’s ruling against Dhani for violating the ITE Law was "out of proportion".
He said that Article 27, Clause 3 of the ITE Law was prone to abuse due to poor regulation, and that further abuse of the law could possibly clamp down on freedom of speech in the country.
Anggara said that charging Dhani with violating the ITE Law was legally inappropriate, since what constitutes as an insult under Article 27, Clause 3 was verbal offense against a specific individual, not a group or a generalized collective.
He said that the judges should consider exonerating Dhani by taking into account that the musician was likely clouded by his emotions when making the controversial statement on his vlog.
Anggara brought up a similar case from 2014 on Ervani Emy Handayani's alleged violation of the ITE Law when she posted a disparaging Facebook status about her coworkers. He said the Bantul District Court exonerated Ervani, as the judges agreed that she had been “clouded by emotions when making her statement”.
