"Indonesia: Stop Abusing Cyberlaw and Criminal Defamation to Harass Human Rights Defenders Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar & to Stop Them from Speaking Truth to Power!", 21 September 2021

We, Manushya Foundation, Access Now, ALTSEAN-Burma, Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), the Institute of Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), PEN International, and Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), as the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship, stand in solidarity with the human rights defenders Fatia Maulidiyanti, Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), and Haris Azhar, Executive Director of Lokataru. We call for immediate action to ensure Indonesian authorities do not abuse Indonesia’s criminal defamation and cyber laws to harass and silence these human rights defenders, who exercised their right to freedom of expression to unveil the realities behind the Indonesian military involvement in the gold mining industry in the Blok Wabu area of Sugapa District, Intan Jaya Regency, Papua Province.
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On August 26, 2021, Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan sent a subpoena to Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, threatening them with legal action for defamation, under Article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (UU ITE)⁴, and Article 310 (1) of the Indonesian Penal Code⁵, in case they refused to comply with his demands to apologize and pledge not to repeat the act of dissemination of information online on YouTube, mass media, or online media. The subpoena was issued following a talk show on Haris’s YouTube channel, titled Ada Lord Luhut di balik Relasi Ekonomi-Ops Militer Intan Jaya!! Jenderal BIN Juga Ada!!, in which Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti discussed the findings of a multi-stakeholder Report⁶, revealing the involvement of Indonesian army officials and retirees into the business operations of a gold mining actor...

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Therefore, we call upon the government of Indonesia to:

1. Immediately drop the threat of prosecution against Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar;
2. In line with the General Comment No. 34 of the United Nations Human Rights Committee,⁸ decriminalize defamation by repealing criminal defamation provisions of the Penal Code and the ITE law;
3. Ensure that the National Commission on Human Rights identifies Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar as human rights defenders whose work should be protected;
4. Carry out preventive action on criminalization of human rights defenders and take corrective measures for the abuse of authority of state officials who intimidate human rights defenders; and
5. Revise or repeal all discriminative and repressive regulations, including articles about defamation, that repress human rights defenders’ freedom of opinion.