The Draft Bill on General Elections makes it possible for journalists to be sent to jail or fined for news reports made during a ‘cool-off’ period in election season.
Editors of print or online newspapers who violate the ban — stipulated in Article 103 of the Bill — will be sentenced to three to six months jail and fined up to five million rupiah (about US$532).
“Criminalisation of the press should not be given any space in a democratic country that respects the right to public information,” said a spokesman from the Alliance of Independent Journalists Indonesia.
However, advertisers have not responded in the same way. Partha Kabi, managing director of ZenithOptimedia Indonesia, said: “If it was important to clients, they would have raised it as an issue. But they haven’t. They are more concerned with the impending laws blocking foreign-made ads in Indonesia.”
