Posts Tagged ‘Indonesia’
August 6th, 2010
The
Indonesian government has placed a ban on the screening of the Australian feature film Balibo due to its sensitive issues.
The film tells the story of 5 Australian based journalists who were killed in the town of Balibo in Timor Leste in 1975. The Film Censorship Board in Indonesia argues that it could ‘reopen old wounds’ about East Timor. A screening of Balibo was orginally scheduled at the 11th Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest) but was cancelled after the festival committee received notification of the ban on Tuesday.
June 25th, 2010
Police have charged pop star
Azril “Ariel” Irham with pornography offences for allegedly
participating in home made sex tapes with two other Indonesian celebrities. The videos came to light after they were leaked on social networking sites
Twitter and
Facebook and have subsequently been widely circulated via mobile phones.
Controversial Indonesian pornography laws prohibit public displays of flesh and behaviour that could incite lust and if convicted, Ariel faces a maximum sentence of 12 years imprisonment.
April 20th, 2010
Human rights groups have criticised the Indonesian constitutional court’s decision to
uphold a controversial 45 year-old blasphemy law yesterday.
The Wahid Institute, the first group to lobby for a review of the law, and many other human rights campaigners for greater religious pluralism have stated that the decision is a
“setback for Indonesian democracy”. The law also limits the number of recognised religions in Indonesia to only six: Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Confucianism. The blasphemy law will be applicable mainly to offences against Islam.
March 17th, 2010
The
Asian Human Rights Commission yesterday condemned the Indonesian governments ban of
books and
films under the guise of maintaining “public order” and “state unity”. The banned material covers subjects including the
30 September Movement and the conflict in East Timor.
December 2nd, 2009
Indonesia’s censorship board has banned an Australian-made film about the alleged murder five journalists by Indonesian troops during the 1975 invasion of East Timor. The ruling came just hours before a planned premiere screening of Balibo was due to take place forcing organisers to cancel. Jakarta maintains they were killed accidentally in cross-fire however in 2007 an Australian coroner concluded that the journalists had been executed. A sixth Australian journalist was killed in Dili shortly afterwards while investigating the deaths. Read more
here
July 15th, 2009
On 10 July, an Indonesian logging company detained three members of a French television news crew in Jambi province, Sumatra. Ciryl Payen, the Southeast Asia bureau chief for the France 24 television station, Gilaume Martin and Dewi Arilaha were apprehended by security officers from PT Lontar Papirup Pulp and Papers, while they were filming trucks loaded with logs parked at the company’s premises in Tebing Tinggi. The company’s head of security, Eriyanto, also seized their video tapes. The three journalists were then taken to the local police station. The police, however, could not think of an appropriate charge to file against them. Despite this, Eriyanto continued to detain them, saying they took video footage of the company’s property without seeking permission.
Read more
here
July 1st, 2009
The Jakarta press council have welcomed the Jakarta High Court’s decision to overturn a guilty verdict imposed on a kiosk owner who had been convicted of libel for having written a complaint letter about a property company. Press council member Abdullah Alamudi said that the council was pleased the court had supported freedom of speech. Read more
here
May 14th, 2009
Aliansi Jurnalis Independen is a professional journalist trade union in Indonesia. It campaigns for the independence to express ideas, for access to information, and for the right to assemble. The organisation also defends journalists and Indonesian press workers.
