Court bans govt, company from filing defamation suits

Indonesia's Constitutional Court has approved in part a petition brought by an environment campaigner, it said on Tuesday, opening the way for a legal change to bar the government or a company filing defamation complaints in the event of criticism.

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Human rights activists have said the Electronic Information and Transaction Law is a threat to freedom of speech in the world’s third-largest democracy and that the government has used it to criminalise its critics.

Environment activist Daniel Frits Maurits Tangkilisan had petitioned the Constitutional Court to revoke an article in the law regulating defamation.