BOOKS BAN
A New Page
The Attorney General’s authority to ban books on the ground of disruption of public order is considered a violation of the Constitution. Books should be banned from circulation only after a court ruling.
October 20, 2010
AFTER the panel of constitutional judges read out the ruling, Hilmar Farid, the coordinator of the Institute of Indonesian Social History, quickly took out his cellphone. He could hardly wait to notify his colleagues of the ruling. “We win! Law No. 4/PNPS/1963 has been revoked,” read the text message to some of his associates. Soon afterward, congratulatory text messages flooded the inbox of his mobile phone.
Next to him was Taufik Basari, the
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