Internet use to be controlled

From Reporters sans frontieres (RSF). Action Alert
19 June 1997

(RSF/IFEX) - On 18 June 1997, Minister of Tourism, Posts and Telecommunications Joop Ave said in launching a new Internet service for the partly state-owned telecommunications firm Indosat that Indonesia was planning to control access to the Internet as it went ahead with its programme to build the infrastructure to make the information superhighway accessible to many of Indonesia's 200 million citizens. Ave declared that "pornography [and] things that hamper or threaten national security" would be controlled. He added that "the values of the nation would definitely have a bearing upon the application of the Internet," and that Indonesia would not have an "anything goes" attitude toward the Internet.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to authorities:

• indicating that the threats against Internet use come during a period of restrictions on virtually every kind of freedom in Indonesia
• requesting that all possible steps be taken immediately to guarantee the free flow of information, both on the Internet and on all other forms of media

APPEALS TO:

His Excellency General Suharto
President
Office of the President
Bina Graha, Jalan Veteran No. 17
Jakarta Pusal, Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 360 517/367 782/345 4438

Copies to:

Agung Singgih, S.H.
Attorney General
Jakarta, Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 720 8557

Haji Utoyo Oesman
Minister of Justice
Jakarta, Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 525 3095

Ali Alatas
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Jalan Taman Pejambon 6
Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 345 0517

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Barbara Vital-Durand at RSF, 5,
rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84,
fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: rsf@calvanet. calvacom.fr,
Internet: http://www.calvacom.fr/rsf/.

The information contained in this action alert is the sole responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF.

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