From an op-ed piece titled Social Media Paradox.

A growing number of people are falling foul of Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE), which is notorious for being used to criminalise political dissidents.

Muhammad Ridwan – Amnesty International Indonesia has responded to a case involving an interfaith activist from West Sumatra, Sudarto, who has been charged with hate speech. Amnesty believes that Sudarto was in fact defending religious minorities’ right to worship.

Jakarta – The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) has recorded that over the last five years conflicts involving mining have occurred on land covering some 925,748 hectares, involving at least 71 cases.

Resky Novianto, Adi Ahdiat, Jakarta – Throughout 2019, most of the violence against journalists in Indonesia was committed by police. This was revealed in the Alliance of Independent Journalists’ (AJI) 2019 End of Year Report which was released on Monday December 23.

Jakarta – The Secretary General of the Nusantara Traditional Community Alliance (AMAN) Rukka Sombolinggi says that traditional communities are desperately waiting for the ratification of the Draft Law on Traditional Communities in order to bring down the level of criminalisation.

Jakarta – Civil freedoms under the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo are seen as having declined. Based on the results of a Saiful Mujani Research Center (SMRC) survey between May and June 2019, 43 percent of respondents said they were afraid of expressing an opinion in public.

Jakarta – The Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam) says that freedom of expression and opinion in Indonesia has declined since 2014. Citing data from the Freedom House website, Elsam said that for the last five years freedom of expression in Indonesia has been rated as no longer free.

Jakarta – Journalist, filmmaker and founder of the production house Watchdoc, Dandhy Dwi Laksono, was arrested by police on charges of violating Article 28 Paragraph (2) of the Electronic Transaction and Information (ITE) Law on the night of Thursday September 26.

Fitria Chusna Farisa, Jakarta – Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Deputy Coordinator Feri Kusuma believes that the arrest of filmmaker and journalists Dandhy Dwi Laksono and musician Ananda Badudu is reminiscent of how the country was before the era of reformasi – the reform process that began in 1998.

Jakarta – Papua Student Alliance (AMP) lawyer Veronica Koman has finally spoken out about being declared a suspect by the East Java provincial police for inciting an incident at the Papuan student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya in August.

Jakarta – The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) believes that the police have failed to look at the context when they declared Veronica Koman and Surya Anta suspects. Komnas HAM Deputy Chairperson Sandrayati Moniaga said that both are included in the ranks of human rights defenders.

Devina Halim, Jakarta – Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid is of the view that the naming of Veronica Koman as a suspect could create fear among the public about speaking out on issues related to human rights (HAM) violations in Papua.

Jakarta – Perempuan Mahardika (Free Women), a non-government organisation (NOG) working to protect women, is calling on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to give amnesty to Baiq Nuril after the Supreme Court rejected her appeal yesterday.

Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition, which is made up of a number of non-government organisations (NGOs), is urging President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to give amnesty to Baiq Nuril after the Supreme Court rejected her appeal today.

As the 2014-2019 term was coming to an end, the House of Representatives (DPR) were persistently trying to pass through a variety of draft legal revisions.

Andi Saputra, Jakarta – Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and running mate Sandiaga Uno are challenging the results of the 2019 presidential election which was won by incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and running mate Ma’ruf Amin.

Dewi Nurita, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) is urging Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs (Kemenko Polhukam) Wiranto to cancel the formation of a legal team tasked with monitoring the remarks, actions and thoughts of certain figures who are allegedly threatening state sec

Jakarta – Indonesian Police Chief (Kapolri) General Tito Karnavian is threatening to use the maker (treason, subversion, sedition) articles to deal with mass movements or people’s power protests which have been called for by several parties following the April 17 presidential and legislative elections (pemilu).

Klojen (Surya Malang) – Journalists in the East Java city of Malang held a peaceful action at the Freedom Square to commemorate International Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3. This year’s action was different from those held in previous years.

Eva Mazrieva, Washington DC – In mid-April Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual report and world press freedom index. Surprisingly, Indonesia was still in 124th place meaning press freedom has stagnated and there has been absolutely no progress since 2018.