TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Director General of Digital Space Supervision at the Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi), Alexander Sabar, said the government cannot take down news content without a recommendation from the Press Council.
"Because the authority to handle press products is essentially under the Press Law," said Alexander to Tempo on Monday, June 22, 2026.
Alexander made the statement in response to a confirmation request for a Tempo article titled "The Difference Between Press Suppression Then and Now" (Beda Pemberedelan Pers Dulu dan Kini) published on June 22, 2026.
The article was published to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the censorship of Tempo, Editor, and Tabloid Detik magazines by the New Order regime on June 21, 1994.
According to Alexander, Komdigi is not authorized to take down confirmed press work, and if content was retroactively declared as press work after being taken down, the ministry is within its rights to normalize the ban.
The Publishing Business License (SIUPP) for Tempo, Editor, and Tabloid Detik magazines was revoked by the Department of Information on June 21, 1994.
After Soeharto's resignation in 1998, Minister of Information Yunus Yosfiah removed SIUPP as a press business permit. The Press Law now only requires press institutions with legal entity status to conduct the information-publishing business.
Therefore, the government has no means to suppress the press.
However, press censorship still occurs. The Secretary General of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI Indonesia), Bayu Wardhana, said that as mass media businesses scramble, press firms are more vulnerable to censorship.
This, he said, can occur where pro-government entities enter the company as shareholders, who will then intervene in the editorial process. "Or through government advertising," said Bayu on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
Another form of censorship is through civil or criminal lawsuits. Despite media companies being protected under Press Law, the high costs of litigation still prove a burden. Eventually, the media will self-censor their news.
This censorship, Bayu went on, also occurs in digital space, where the government, through Komdigi, can force social media platforms to take down news content.
One recent case is when Komdigi requested digital platforms to take down Magdalene's news about the findings of the Advocacy Team for Democracy in the case of the acid attack on Andrie Yunus, a Kontras activist, which was published on March 30, 2026.
Read: How Media Bans Have Changed Over Time
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