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Nuril case raises need for ITE Law revision
Presidential staffer Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said revisions to the law should be considered to prevent cases such as Nuril’s happening again.
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Baiq Nuril Maknun (center), convicted of defamation for reporting her alleged sexual harasser, arrives at the Law and Human Rights Ministry in Jakarta on Monday to ask President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to grant her amnesty. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he case of Baiq Nuril Maknun, the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) woman who was convicted of defaming her alleged sexual harasser, has once again led to demands for a revision of the controversial Electronic Transaction and Information (ITE) Law to remove the catch-all clauses that were used in Nuril's prosecution.
Presidential staffer Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said revisions to the law should be considered to prevent cases such as Nuril’s happening again.
“We have received several suggestions and complaints from many experts about the elastic clauses in the ITE law,” she said after meeting with a group of activists advocating for Nuril on Thursday, as quoted by Antara news agency. “Going forward it is important for us to consider how to ensure the law does not ensnare innocent victims.”
Nuril was found guilty of circulating a recording of a phone call in which the principal of the school where she was working at, Muslim, related the sordid details of an affair he had with another woman.
The NTB district court acquitted Nuril in 2017, but the Supreme Court sentenced Nuril to six months imprisonment and fined her Rp 500 million (US$34,218) after finding her guilty of violating Article 27 paragraph 1 of the ITE Law.
While the ITE law was initially passed to regulate electronic transactions, activists have long called for revision of the law because it has more often been used to prosecute alleged defamation and hate speech.
Article 27 of the law, which forbids transmitting or creating online material containing lewdness, gambling, defamation, and/or blackmail, accounts for most of the police reports and prosecutions under the law.
