Abstract
Since its enactment in 2008 and amendment in 2016, Indonesia's Information and Electronic Transaction law (ITE Law) has been problematic. Critics argue that the Defamation provision of ITE Law has vague interpretations and has been used disproportionately to threaten freedom of speech on the Internet (SAFEnet, 2021). In response to this controversial law, the Indonesian president called for revising the ITE Law in 2021, drawing considerable media attention. Given the crucial role of popular online news media in shaping the public's perceptions of the issue represented, this research explores how the media covered ITE Law revision as a public discourse, as they should be neutral and unbiased. This research employs a critical content analysis grounded in a critical discourse analysis approach to analyse the representation of ITE Law revision in Detik.com and Kompas.com, two of Indonesia's most popular news media (Reuters Institute, 2022), making them key sources of information for the Indonesian society. This research examined news sources from Detik.com and Kompas.com in 2021 and performed a qualitative data analysis of 203 news articles using NVivo to explore the differences in the discursive representation of ITE Law revision. The results show that Detik.com provides more robust coverage with a reasonable diversity of perspectives. In contrast, Kompas.com reports more conservatively, which may restrict public discourse. This research revealed how issues are framed, which voices are represented, and the openness to discussing powerful figures. This realisation should make Indonesian society all the more vigilant and discerning in their consumption of mainstream news.
Author Information
Sufri Eka Bhakti, University of Kent, United Kingdom
Paper Information
Conference: BAMC2024
Stream: Communication
This paper is part of the BAMC2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Bhakti S. (2025) Freedom of Speech? Coverage of Indonesia’s “Information and Electronic Transactions” Law in Indigenous Online News Media ISSN: 2435-9475 – The Barcelona Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2024: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 67-79) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9475.2024.8
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9475.2024.8
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