Written by Alberico Junior<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dili: (21.8.2020) The Government of Timor-Leste\u2019s policy on removing the defamation law from the Civil Code to the country\u2019s Penal Code, which aims to criminalize defamation amid the global coronavirus (COVID\u201319) pandemic, has been widely criticised by journalists, academics, university students and ordinary citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They say it is against the country\u2019s constitution, the\nprinciple of democracy and the principle of Timorese resistance, which is about\nfreedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to them, the Ministry of Justice\u2019s policy on\ncriminalizing defamation will affect freedom of the press and freedom of\nexpression, which is set out in the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of\nTimor-Leste and the International Convention on civil political rights that the\ncountry ratified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Executive Director of Judicial System Monitoring,\nAna Paula Marcal, said the amendment would explicitly ban Timorese citizens\nfrom expressing their thoughts and criticism of the Government and politicians\nin power if they committed acts of corruption or any other criminal acts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone is concerned about this amendment of the\nlaw, such as civil society organizations, the media, journalists, student\nmovement and the ordinary citizens because this law will explicitly ban the\ncitizens from conveying their thoughts and criticism to the Government, which\nis in power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTimor-Leste is internationally-recognized as\ndemocratic country where all the Timorese people are free to express their\nideas and thoughts as it is part our rights to call for the Government to\nprovide us clean water supply and other basic needs, but this law will limit\nour rights of expression,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms. Ana Paula added this amendment would also impede\nthe country\u2019s Anti-Corruption Commission (KAK)\u2019s work, saying a witness in any\ncase relating corruption would not be brave enough to testify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She called on the Government to scrap its plan of\ncriminalizing defamation as it impacted the Timorese citizens\u2019 rights and said\nit was good for the country\u2019s judicial institutions to keep using the Civil\nCode to legally process any case relating to defamation not criminalizing it as\nTimor-Leste is democratic country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the Director of Timor-Leste\u2019s Forum of NGO\n(FONGTI), Daniel Santos Carmo, said indeed this policy would impact the civil\nsociety organizations and the media\u2019s freedom of doing social control to\nguarantee good governance and accountability for strengthening the country\u2019s\nyoung democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCivil society organizations are the Government\u2019s\npartner to promote good governance, but if this law is approved, then it would\nkill the civil society\u2019s will and spirit of carrying out their tasks in\ncontrolling the governance. If we criticise the politicians, we would be\nconsidered to have defamed them, and then they will take us to courts for legal\nproceedings. Finally, all NGos in the country would be closed down,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Daniel also said this amendment would also impact\nthe Anti-Corruption Commission\u2019s function of preventing and fighting acts of\ncorruption in the country because people would not be brave enough to report\ncases for investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe citizens and civil society are afraid of\nuncovering any case, which is related to acts of corruption if they do not have\nenough evidence to prove, they could be considered to have defamed others. So,\nthis will kill the civil society organizations\u2019 role of social control,\u201d he\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President of Timor Lorosa\u2019e Journalist Association\n(AJTL), Zevonia Vieira, said all Timorese journalists are against and rejected\nthe amendment of the law as it would only benefit the country\u2019s politicians and\nprotect those in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAJTL totally rejects and against the\nGovernment\u2019s policy on criminalizing defamation as it will destroy freedom of\nthe press and freedom of expression in Timor-Leste and it only benefits small\ngroup of elite politicians who are in power,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms.\nZevonia explained this law would specifically affect the media and journalists\u2019\nrole in doing investigative reporting into corruption within Government and State\ninstitutions. The media and journalist would be forced to self-censor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis\nlaw is exactly to force the media and journalists to make self-censorship as it\nwill limit them and ban them from doing investigation into corruption cases\nthat happen within the Government and State institutions. If this law is\napproved, this country will be back to Indonesia\u2019s new order regime and\nPortuguese colonial time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Program\nManager of AJAR (Asia Justice and Rights) Timor-Leste, Inocencio Xavier, said\nthis law was produced to paralyze the independent State institutions, namely\nthe Anti-Corruption Commission (KAK) in preventing and fighting corruption. He\nsaid it would also affect the media\u2019s role of social controller by doing\ninvestigative reporting into corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\nwill impact the Anti-corruption Commission\u2019s policy on preventing and fighting\nacts of corruption in promoting good governance and accountability. The second,\nit will also affect freedom of the press in the country where the media will be\nafraid of doing investigative reporting into corruption case and other social\nissues,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr.\nInocencio added that this law was intentionally drafted to protect the\ncorruptors and politicians who were in power from the media, civil society\norganizations and the citizens\u2019 criticism when they were incapable of ruling\nthe country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nex-President of the Republic, Jose Ramos Horta, who is also a Nobel Peace Prize\nLaureate, said he disagreed with the\nGovernment\u2019s policy of criminalizing defamation as it could damage the\ncountry\u2019s image internationally. It was better for the Government to make a\npositive move to help improve people\u2019s lives as the Government only had two\nyears to rule the country rather than wasting time for criminalization\ndefamation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\ninterview with media outlets, Minister of Justice, Manuel da Costa Carceres\nsaid the law that he produced would help educate all the Timorese people to\nrespect one another, saying it would prevent the people from insulting others\nand the country\u2019s leaders publically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jim\nNolan, IFJ\u2019 legal expert in the Asia Pacific as quoted by Global Voice, noted\nthat Timor-Leste already had a mechanism to address s against media reporting\nwithout criminalizing free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile,\nJane Worthington, the Asia\u2013Pacific director of the International Federation of\nJournalists (IFJ) who is also quoted by the Global Voice highlighted an\nalarming provision in the proposed law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis\nproposed law contains ill defined \u2018offences\u2019 and switches the focus of any\ncomplaint to the journalists and\/or publisher to prove the subject to the\ncomplaint. Put simply, it places the legal burden of proving that a story is\ntrue upon the journalist and\/or publisher,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPress Council of Timor-Leste has recently submitted its submission, asking the\nMinistry of Justice to scrap its plan of criminalizing defamation as it is\nagainst the principle of the Timorese resistance during the Indonesia military\noccupation when many Timorese were imprisoned and killed because they expressed\ntheir rights of freedom and independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Centro\nNacional Chega (National Institute of Timorese Resistance Memory)\u2019s report\nrecommends that the State organs not to criminalize defamation as many Timorese\nwere imprisoned in their struggle for freedom and independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nArticles 187 \u2013 A to 187 \u2013 F stipulates that any person who publically states\nand publishes through the media and social media facts or opinion that may\noffend the honor, good name, reputation of a current or previous member of\ngovernment, church official or any public official can be prosecuted and be\npunished with up to three years in prison. \nAlberico da Costa Junior \u2013 Freelancer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Alberico Junior Dili: (21.8.2020) The Government of Timor-Leste\u2019s policy on removing the defamation law from the Civil Code to the country\u2019s Penal Code, which aims to criminalize defamation amid the global coronavirus (COVID\u201319) pandemic, has been widely criticised by journalists, academics, university students and ordinary citizens. They say it is against the country\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notisia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4843,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/4843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}