James Delahunty
19 Jun 2010 22:39
President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono put his support behind proposals to censor the Internet in the country following the release of a sex tape featuring several popular celebrities. Nazril Ariel, a rock singer for the band Peterpan, along with Luna Maya and Cut Tari deny uploading the clips but could still face up to 12 years in prison.
Yudhoyono has steered clear of the scandal, dubbed "Peterporn", until he was asked for an opinion about it on Friday. "We have increasingly realized that our nation should not stay naked and be crushed by the information technology frenzy, because there will be many victims," he said.
"Other countries have already have regulations on this... The incident has made us think about the best thing that should be done. Negative impacts on our society should be avoided." Indonesian communications minister Tifatul Sembiring, chief of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party, called for an Internet blacklist and got lawmakers support recently.
He has vowed to "save the young" from Internet pornography.