Indonesia seeks to revive colonial-era lèse-majesté law

University students protest proposed revisions to the Criminal Code in front of the House of Representatives on Sept. 23, 2019. - JP

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): Amid a series of threats to free speech in the country, the government is pushing to reintroduce colonial-era provisions that would make insulting a sitting president punishable by imprisonment.

Last week, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the House of Representatives discussed placing a bill to revise the Criminal Code back in the House’s National Legislation Programme (Prolegnas) for this year.