Amnesty International Blasts Ade Armando, Rocky Gerung Cases

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid has commented on the hate speech cases implicating University of Indonesia lecturer Ade Armando and social media activist Rocky Gerung.

Hamid asserted there was a stark difference between hate speech and the freedom of speech, which he said was clearly regulated in the constitution that corresponded with the international law on hate speech.

“For example, it is considered hate speech if it has elements to provoke people, such as war propaganda,” said Usman Hamid on Thursday, April 12. 

However, the former member of human rights group KontraS said hate speech was now generally standardized by whether it touched on any religion or morality issue, which he claimed had curbed the freedom of speech.

Usman claimed that the non-application of the standards on hate speech had led to the emergence of cases where people voicing different views were criminalized with multiple allegations such as blasphemy. 

Read: Amnesty International Calls on RI to Nix Blasphemy Law

He said many had fallen victim to the ineptitude to tell between freedom of speech and hate speech. “The Tempo case, Rocky’s case, Ade Armando’s case, those are only a few examples of the many other cases,” he said.

Usman urged the government to refer to the collectively-agreed limits on the freedom of speech by the international law on human rights in identifying hate speeches.

“Don’t be influenced by certain groups that use religions and morality to personally attack someone for voicing an opinion,” said Usman.

Both Rocky Gerung and Ade Armando have been reported to the police after voicing their opinions on matters related to a faith and religion. Rocky reckons that the holy book is based on fiction and Ade Armando considers the Islamic adhan [call for prayer] as an unsacred event. 

SYAFIUL HADI