ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship
Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms
Available, but Not Sufficient
who discloses sensitive information related to
State-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms
protection. In addition, the oversight body in
are available; individuals can file complaints to
charge of administering protection for victims
the Indonesia National Commission on Human
and witnesses, the Witness and Victim Protection
Rights, or Komnas HAM. The Commission is
Agency (LPSK), operates in tandem with other
authorised to conduct inquiries into gross human
agencies that are known for their corrupt practices
rights violations under the 2000 Law on the
and lack of independence, such as the Corruption
Establishment of an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court.157
Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National
Inquiries initiated by the Commission, however, do
Police. Therefore, the Law’s implementation is
not automatically trigger a prosecution, nor does
substantially hindered by lack of transparency and
they make prosecution more likely to take place.
institutional gaps.162
Complaints handled by the Commission rarely
amount to criminal charges, leaving high levels
of impunity. This is partly due to the fact that
the Attorney General’s Office, who is in charge of
deciding whether cases of gross human rights
violations can proceed to litigation, rarely decides
so.158 Furthermore, politics and the backgrounds
of commissioners can exacerbate this general
hesitance to see complaints through. A religiously
conservative commissioner, for instance, would
assess a case in a manner different from someone
with a background in human rights activism.159
As a result, the Commission’s role rarely pierces
through the investigatory or advisory capacity,
making it even more unlikely for digital freedoms
breaches to be remedied through this avenue.160
Whistleblowers
Protection
Environmental Cases
Whistleblowers
and
vulnerable
state-backed
to
activists
are
and
a crime they know about, which may be done
in the online space, would not enjoy special
Environmental Cases
In addition, there are laws in place that prevent
the filing of lawsuits against individuals who
advocate for environmental rights. For instance,
the 2009 Law on Environmental Protection and
Management, and the 2013 Law on the Prevention
and Eradication of Forest Destruction offer such
protection. Furthermore, individuals who provide
information about or report on environmental
issues are also safeguarded by these laws.
However, it’s important to note that while these
laws are generally seen as a response to Strategic
Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP),
they lack a specific definition of SLAPP and only
apply to environmental cases. Consequently, they
may not provide sufficient grounds for SLAPP
defendants to have their cases dismissed, nor can
judges rely on them to prevent legal abuses.163
especially
harassment
for
expressing themselves online. Indonesia does not
have a comprehensive whistleblower protection
regime; the 2006 Law on Witness and Victim
Protection is the only piece of legislation that
sets out their fundamental rights.161 The Law
has a number of shortcomings, including that
whistleblowers
are
merely
characterised
as
“reporters” of suspected crimes. Thus, anyone
104
Dawn of Digital Dictatorship: Weaponizing the Law Against Online Speech in Southeast Asia