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August 30, 2006
Indonesia: Trial Of Editor For Publishing Muslim Cartoons
According to Italian News Agency AKI and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the trial was due to have started today of a web editor, Teguh Santosa, for publishing some of the Mohammed cartoons which were originally commissioned by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Teguh was due to appear in South Jakarta District Court today, charged with "defamation against a religion". I have checked on Antara News and the Jakarta Post's English language pages, and can find no mention of the case.
The editor of Rakyat Merdeka Online was arrested on July 19, even though he had made a public apology for showing the pictures, which are considered offensive to Muslims. He had also removed the images from the news website. He is being charged with defamation of a religion under the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP). If found guilty, he could face five years' imprisonment.
Christopher Warren, the president of IFG stated: "This trial against Teguh is an affront to free speech. To face five years imprisonment, is not only excessive, it is also an attack on the very foundations of freedom of expression."
"This is another terrible violation of press freedom, which in a long line of defamation lawsuits against journalists and media organisations, including Tempo, Kompas, and Trust, seems to highlight a troublesome pattern in Indonesia."
"It is time for the Indonesian Government to recognise that jailing journalists for defamation is an ineffective and inappropriate penalty. Defamation should be dealt with through the civil Law of the Press 40/1999 in Indonesia."
IFJ represents 500,000 journalists in more than 115 countries. When we have more news on this trial, we will report it.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at August 30, 2006 9:56 PM
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