CONSTITUTIONAL COURT INVITES PETITIONS AGAINST GOVT BOOK BANS

Jakarta, Dec 30 (ANTARA) - Civil society members who have criticized government bans on certain books are welcome to file suits in the Constitutional Court (MK) against the laws that authorized the bans, MK Chairman Moh Mahfud MD said.

"They are welcome to ask MK to conduct a judicial review of the laws underlying the bans," Mahfud said at a meeting with a delegation of the Coalition of Anti-Corruption Communities (Kompak) at the MK building here Wednesday.

The MK was ready to consider and issue a ruling on petitions for a judicial review of the laws that allow the government to ban books it considers capable of giving rise to "public unrest," he said.

Kompak activist Effendi Ghazali said on the occasion, the coalition was planning to file a request for a judicial review of laws on the basis of which the government had forbidden the circulation of certain books. One of such laws was Act No 4/PNPS/1963 on Securing Printed Materials whose Contents May Disturb Public Order, he said.

The government bans were clearly in violation of the principles of basic human rights and democratic values as defined in Article 28F of the 1945 Constitution, he said.

The continued government practice of imposing bans on the circulation of books was "most regrettable", especially after Indonesia had been assessed by many quarters as being one of the largest democracies in the world, Effendi said.