Gay Human Rights Website Taken Out! in Indonesia
Non-profit human rights group labelled ‘pornographic’ in Indonesia
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International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has responded in anger to the blocking of their website in Indonesia. ‘Oppressive governments cannot stop the tide of LGBT voices - whether they be on the internet, in the media or on the streets,’ said Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the IGLHRC in astatement this week.
The non-profit LGBT rights group based in New York, received a message on 1 February from a human rights campaigner in Indonesia that said that two major internet service providers have blocked their website. When the campaigner asked the internet service provide IM2 why, a spokesperson said: ‘the order came from the Minister of Communication and Information who … banned [the website] due to its content, which they determined contains pornography’.
The Jakarta Globe tried to access the site from a mobile phone on Thursday and received this message: ‘The site you are trying to open cannot be accessed because it contains pornographic elements’.
The IGLHRC has worked since 1990 advocating human rights ‘on behalf of people who experience discrimination or abuse on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression’. Johnson’s statement continued: ‘This is not the first time that attempts to organize and educate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies have been met with state censorship. All too often, governments use the charge of pornography as a smokescreen to attack freedom of expression. IGLHRC stands with human rights defenders in Indonesia in their struggle to keep the web free for dialog on basic human rights issues.’
A film made to increase the visibility of queer Indonesian women, Children of Srikandi, premieres this weekend at Berlin Film Festival.
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