Komnas Perempuan Supports Baim Wong's Reporting Steps For Making Domestic Violence A Joke

JAKARTA - Komnas Perempuan asked for legal proceedings related to jokes or pranks about domestic violence (KDRT) carried out by two Indonesian celebrities, Baim Wong and Paula Verhoeven, to continue. Komnas Perempuan supports the report to be continued in order to provide lessons for the community.

Previously, Paula pretended to report the domestic violence case she experienced to the police in the Kebayoran Lama sector, South Jakarta. Baim and Paula then apologized for their actions to the victims of domestic violence and the police. Both were reported to the South Jakarta Metro Police by a number of people on behalf of police friends on Monday, October 3.

"(This) is also to educate the public that domestic violence is a serious matter, it cannot be played around," said Member of the National Commission on Violence against Women Bahrul Fuad, quoted from ANTARA, Tuesday, October 4.

According to Bahrul, a domestic violence joke is a serious act that can be criminally threatened for up to one year and four months, as stated in Article 220 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).

Article 220 of the Criminal Code states "Whoever informs or complains that a criminal act has been committed, even though he knows that it is not done, he is threatened with a maximum imprisonment of one year and four months".

domestic violence itself, he continued, includes serious issues and based on Komnas Perempuan's 2022 annual record, domestic violence is the highest form of violence against women. According to Bahrul, most of the victims did not dare to complain.

Therefore, he believes that making jokes related to this is not wise and does not provide education to the public. According to him, the negative impact on domestic violence victims is not getting empathy from content creators. In fact, domestic violence victims experienced a very deep psychological impact.

"So it is unethical if this domestic violence is only used as prank or joke content. Victims of domestic violence need assistance and need support from the community," said Bahrul.

He added that Komnas Perempuan will process all domestic violence complaints in accordance with internal procedures and then the case will be referred to a service institution where the victim is domiciled to get assistance according to the needs of the victim.