Indonesian Government Pushed to Drop the UU ITE Rubber-Law
5 November 2018 11:44 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A community embodied by victims of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law (UU ITE) is pushing for the government to drop three Articles within the law that is often considered as a “rubber law” prone to a broad interpretation.
Community coordinator Muhammad Arsyad deemed the UU ITE is a means to limit a person’s freedom of opinion and expression based on its disparity of power relations between the reporter and reported.
“Many who file the report come from State Officials, Authority figures, and financiers,” said Arsyad in a written statement today.
One example Arsyad gave was the Ervani case from Yogyakarta who was reported to the police by her husband’s bosses after she wrote about the leadership capacity of the company’s top brasses.
Other cases strengthening Arsyad’s argument involving victims who are activists and journalists include Anindya Shabrina in Surabaya, who was reported to the police for writing a piece on the discussion’s disbandment and a sexual harassment that was done by a police member at the Papua hostel in Surabaya.
Deni Erliana was reported by a housing developer for fighting for the rights of local residents upon obtaining clean water, while Zakki Amali was reported by the Semarang State University Rector for publishing news on the rector’s alleged plagiarism.
Driven from similar cases mentioned above, Arsyad pushed for the UU ITE Law that was introduced back in 2008 to be dropped and that society, in general, must be given freedom to constitutionally express and voice their opinion.
VINDRY FLORENTIN