New anti-pornography laws in Indonesia

Saturday, 1 November 2008, 21:18 | Category : Politics, Human Rights & Other Serious Stuff, Slices
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Indonesia has the biggest Muslim population in the world. Surprisingly enough, until now pornography has been very easily available in the country. Here’s a quote from a BBC article:

“These are Indonesian magazines,” Mr Kaplale said, spreading a selection of pornographic tabloids across the table.

“It is terrible, our poor country. We are a religious people but now Indonesia is third worst in the world for porn after Scandinavia and Russia.

“It is so easily available and it is going unchecked. That is why we need this law,” he said.

The Guardian says more of the same:

There are, for example, few western countries that would show a posse of secondary school students watching a porn film in mid-afternoon and becoming so aroused they pair off couple by couple to go and have sex. Yet this scene appeared recently on an Indonesian soap opera. The fact that it was broadcast in the evening means little in a country where few children go to bed before 9pm.

So not surprisingly, the government has decided to do something about it - the problem is many think they’re going about it in the wrong way. Here’s a short report on the uproar that the new legislation has caused:

And here’s a longer debate:

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