Page 10 - Harmonisation of Anti-Fake News Legislation in ASEAN Flip Book

Harmonisation of Anti-Fake News Legislation in ASEAN
Elucidation of Article 27 Section (4): The provision of this section shall refer to the provisions for extortion and and/or governed by the Criminal Code. 31
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Art 28(2); No Person shall intentionally and unauthorizedly disseminate information with intent to incite hatred or dissension on individuals and/or certain groups of community on the basis of ethnic groups, religions, races, and intergroups (communal disturbances).32
In summary, the relevant offences under art 27 of the Act are to know- ingly and without authority distribute and/or transmit and/or cause to be accessible electronic content which offends against propriety,33 and/or affronts [sic] or defames,34 and/or extorts and/or threatens.35 As there is no clarification as to what constitutes an offence against propriety nor what constitutes the offence of affronting, it is left open to the courts to decide. The dictionary definition of propriety is also imprecise as it is “the quality of being socially or morally accept- able”36 Affront in the context of art 27(3) is to insult or hurt someone by words.37 Further, as Indonesia is a Civil Code country each court will be able to apply its own interpretation of the meaning of art 27.
Hate speech is the subject of art 28(2).38 In the Indonesian version there is the addition of “(SARA)” which refers to a Suharto era policy ”meaning a ban on the public discussion on the topic of ethnic group, religion, race and group-based interest as these might endanger public order”.39 Despite the apparent widespread back-
31 Ibid “Elucidation of Article 27(4)”.
32 Ibid art 28(2).
33 Ibid art 27(1).
34 Ibid art 27(3).
35 Ibid art 27(4).
36 COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary (online at 28 July 2020) (online ed, ‘Propriety’ (def 1).
37 COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary (online at 28 July 2020) (online ed, ‘affront’ (def 1).
38 Amendment to Electronic Information and Transactions Law (n 14)
39 ‘Ethnic and Religious Violence in Indonesia’, Business (Blog Post, 23 December 2016) <https://www.
indonesia-investments.com/business/risks/ethnic-religious-violence/item244>.
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