GOVT TO REVIEW STATE SECRECY BILL

Jakarta, Nov 23 (ANTARA) - The government is to review the state secrecy bill, especially those articles in the bill over which the government and parliament still have to reach agreement, a minister said.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suynato said here on Monday the government would include the national secrecy bill in its 2010 national legislation program.

"We are going to review the articles still being debated because they were considered not to be serving the public interest," Djoko Suyanto said after discussing a number of bills on defense and security with Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Djoko said the articles on the definition and explanation of state secrets would be reviewed.

"I don't know yet whether the articles will be totally changed, but we are actually going to review the articles on the public interest," Djoko said.

Meanwhile, state secrecy bill formulating team spokesman Agus Brotosusilo said the team was redrafting several articles in the bill.

"We want to state that the state secrecy bill is not designed to shackle press freedom. We are also going to stress our respect for human rights and the anti corruption fight in the bill," Agus Brotosusilo said.

He added that the government would think seriously about the articles on public interest and to accommodate them proportionally in the state secrecy bill.

In line with it, Agus said the government would hold a meeting with 70 non government organizations to obtain their inputs for the improvement of the state secrecy bill.

Besides the state secrecy bill, the government will also review a number of bills on land, namely reserve component bill, military tribunal bill, and national security bill.