Censorship in Indonesia ? Books Banned ?

The sign of a a truly democratic society and government is one where the government (of the people, by the people, and for the people) protects freedom of speech, free press, and freedom of religion (or freedom from it). 


Below are excerpts from the story as reported in the Jakarta Post.  For full text, click here for full source article.


Gone are the days when authors in the country had to live in fear of seeing their books outlawed by the government, thanks to a watershed court ruling Wednesday that expunges a 1963 law on book-banning.  The Constitutional Court’s ruling stripped the Attorney General’s Office of its authority to ban books it deemed controversial. The institution has banned 22 books since 2006, including 13 history text books for use in junior and senior high schools. However books can still be banned; judges said the decision to remove books from circulation should rest with the courts.

The court ruled that the law was against the Constitution as it violated basic human rights by granting officials the authority to ban books without due process of law. “The sole authority of the Attorney General to ban the distribution of printed materials without due process of law is a characteristic of an authoritarian state and not a law-based state like Indonesia,” Constitutional justice Muhammad Alim said.

One judge, Hamdan Zoelva, made a dissenting opinion to the ruling. He said the courts were law enforcement institutions and not ones that enforced public order. He said the Attorney General should have the authority to ban the distribution of printed materials but only after getting a permit to do so from a court.

The authors have also requested the court to review an article in a 2004 law on the AGO that regulates its authority to monitor the circulation of printed material to maintain public order.  The Constitutional Court ruled that the article was constitutional but highlighted that the word “monitoring” could not be interpreted as banning or confiscating.

Deputy attorney general for intelligence Edwin P. Situmorang said the court ruling did not annul bans imposed on books before the ruling was issued.  “This ruling does not have any impact on our previous decisions to ban the books,” he said.