---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 21:23:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Indonesia detains democracy activist after post to mailing list Indonesia is joining the rest of the world in cracking down on online speech. Perhaps the lesson here is that no matter how much the Internet supposedly "routes around censorship," the most vulnerable points are the humans on both ends. More info on the global net-crackdown is at: http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ -Declan --- http://www.hotwired.com/netizen/96/34/special0a.html HotWired, The Netizen 19 August 1996 Trouble in Paradise by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) Washington, DC, 18 August Indonesian democracy activists have taken their fight for freedom to the Net, and the government doesn't approve. After distributing email messages about riots in Jakarta last month to an international Indonesian-politics mailing list, Prihadi Beny Waluyo, a lecturer at Duta Wacana Christian University, was arrested and interrogated by the military. Since then, the mailing list has been banned from the country and Waluyo has returned to his house, where he remains under surveillance. Until now, Indonesian cyberspace has been relatively free, with no regulations or laws explicitly restricting online discussions. By contrast, newspapers and magazines are subject to strict censorship, following a 1984 ministerial decree requiring the press to obtain licenses from the government. [...] "He [Waluyo] was arrested and accused of sending messages to Holland and printing out photocopies," said Sidney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Asia. "The army is out to stop any kind of discussion of the riots." The censor-happy regime of President Suharto tried to stop journalists from reporting on the outbreaks of violence - which shattered his carefully cultivated image of a stable Indonesia. The worst domestic disturbance in a decade, the uprising started after police stormed the headquarters of an opposition party and ejected anti-government activists from the building... [...] --- August 14, 1996 His Excellency M. Arifin Siregar Ambassador to the United States Embassy of Indonesia 2020 Mass. Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Your Excellency: I am writing on behalf of Human Rights Watch/Asia to protest the arrest of Drs. Prihadi Beny Waluyo, a lecturer at Duta Wacana Christian University. Drs. Waluyo was arrested at his home by soldiers of the district military command. He was reportedly accused of distributing e-mail messages and also of sending messages relating to the July 27 riots to a destination in Holland. His arrest came after an unidentified person gave an officer photocopies of e-mail messages that were traced to Drs. Waluyo. The person claimed the printouts came from a store in Kebumen, a district of Yogyakarta. Following his arrest, Drs. Waluyo was interrogated by the military about his connections with the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD), which the government has accused of masterminding the riots, but he denied any involvement with the PRD. He acknowledged that he had sent messages over the Internet. Following his questioning, he was reportedly ordered to go to his home and was told to report to the district military command on a regular basis. He is said to be under strict surveillance. Human Rights Watch opposes actions by the Indonesian government to restrict electronic communication. As stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. We believe that such forums provide a truly unique opportunity for people from around the globe to share their views with an international audience. By allowing unrestricted communication, important issues can receive the benefit of serious discussion by the broadest cross-section of society. If the Internet is to achieve its potential to become a global information infrastructure, it is important, at the present moment, to agree to allow its unrestricted development. We urge that Drs. Waluyi and every other citizen be allowed to receive and transmit electronic mail without fear of harassment, intimidation, or arrest. Sincerely, Sidney Jones Executive Director Human Rights Watch/Asia cc: His Excellency Nugroho Wisnumurti, Ambassador to the United Nations --- [Thanks to Bruce Sterling for this excerpt. --Declan]
From the INDEX ON CENSORSHIP web site:
http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/ INDONESIA It was reported in May that the government has banned the book Bayang Bayang PKI (In the Shadows of the PKI). Published by the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), it focuses on the 1965-1966 events leading to the assumption of power by President Soeharto. It is now a criminal offence for any person to process, publish, distribute, trade or reprint the book. (A19) The government has put pressure on the media to report positively on government-backed efforts to oust the leader of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), Megawati Sukarno-putri. On 2 June army officers invited most of Indonesia's chief editors to attend media briefings where, among other things, they were told not to use the words 'unseat' or 'topple' in their reporting. A rally in Jakarta organised by members loyal to Megawati on 20 June was broken up by troops, who killed at least one of the protesters, and arrested hundreds. Erwin Hadi, photographer with the weekly Sinar, Iqbal Wahyudin of CNN, Tomohiko Ohtsuka of Mainichi Shimbun and Reuters photographer Enny Nuraheini were among the journalists injured by soldiers during the rally. Local stations were also banned by the government from broadcasting images of the protest or from helping foreign news agencies feed their pictures of the rally abroad. Megawati was finally ousted as PDI leader on 22 June. (Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information) The Supreme Court voted on 13 June to uphold the government's ban on the independent newsweekly Tempo (Index 4&5/1994, 3/1995, 1/1996). The Court ruled that the information minister has the right to revoke publishing licences since he also has the right to issue them. (Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information) Index Index incorporates information from the American Association for the Advancement of Science Human Rights Action Network (AAASHRAN), Amnesty International (AI), Article 19 (A19), the BBC Monitoring Service Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (CCPJ), the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ/FIP), the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEJ), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), International PEN (PEN), Open Media Research Institute (OMRI), Reporters Sans Frontires (RSF), the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) and other sources ###