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House to water down ITE Law, but online repression still lurks
The government has portrayed the provisions on online felonies in the much-decried KUHP law as “good news for democracy” as they impose more lenient punishments than those stipulated under the ITE Law.
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Members of the Corruption Eradication People’s Committee rally outside the State Palace on Jan. 8, 2019, to demand that the government abolish articles in the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law they deem to be a threat to freedom of expression. (JP/Seto Wardhana )
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awmakers are set to water down the provisions on online defamation in the 2016 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, which are now regulated under the newly enacted Criminal Code (KUHP).
However, while the new provisions on online defamation stipulated under the KUHP are considered to be less draconian than those in the prevailing ITE Law, activists have warned that the new penal law could still be used to silence online critics.
The House of Representatives and the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will commence deliberations on the latest revision to the ITE Law in the next sitting session. The policymakers are expected to revise at least seven problematic articles within the legislation that have been legally annulled by the new KUHP.
The said articles are those regulating online obscenity, defamation and hate speech, which have often been weaponized by the powers-that-be to create a chilling effect on free speech. Such provisions are to blame for the shrinking civic space in the country, which critics say has experienced a steady democratic decline in the past decade.
“It is important to synchronize the revision of the ITE Law to be aligned with the Criminal Code,” Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate said in a meeting with members of House Commission I overseeing communications and information affairs on Monday.
The commission’s chairman, Abdul Kharis Almasyhari, said the House would soon set up a working committee to deliberate the proposed revisions sometime next month.
