PDIP Politicians Value There Is No Rubber Article In The ITE Law. There Was A Judicial Review In The Constitutional Court But Rejected

Illustration (Photo: Robin Worrall / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission I from the PDI-P faction TB Hasanuddin spoke up about Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE). In his opinion, there are two crucial articles that are often debated.

"Actually, the ITE Law is the result of a revision taking into account input from various groups and there are indeed two crucial articles, namely Article 27 Paragraph 3 and Article 28 Paragraph 2," Hasanuddin said in a written statement to reporters, Tuesday, February 16.

TB Hasanuddin, who at that time was the Head of the Working Group for the revision of the ITE Law, then explained these 2 crucial articles. First, Article 27 Paragraph 3 which contains articles on insult and defamation.

This article was indeed debated. However, Hasanuddin emphasized, the article had already referred to and was in accordance with Articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).

Furthermore, Article 28 Paragraph 2 concerning broadcasting hatred to people or groups of people based on SARA.

So, from these two articles it is necessary to pay close attention to law enforcers so that there are no errors in their application. Moreover, Article 27 should be a complaint offense so that those who feel aggrieved can report it and the complainant must be not someone else.

Not only that, Hasanuddin also explained that the application of Article 27 Paragraph 2 must be distinguished between criticism and hate speech and insults. This also applies to the application of Article 28 Paragraph 3 of the ITE Law.

"If criticism and hate speech are mixed, then I think the law in this country is no longer healthy," he said.

Furthermore, he denied that these two articles were called rubber articles. Given that these two articles have been submitted to the Constitutional Court twice for a Judicial Review. "And the result is no problem," he said.

Even so, he still welcomed if the ITE Law needed to be revised by making official interpretation guidelines.

"We in the DPR are open, if it has to be revised, let us revise it for the sake of a sense of justice and for the sake of maintaining the integrity of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

"I also invite all the nation's children, let us, as citizens, be wise in using social media. Criticism is legal and protected by law, but do not confuse criticism with hate speech, let alone insults that lead to reports to the police," he concluded.