Indonesian journalists have attacked proposed legislation that would allow reporters to be jailed or fined as likely to harm press freedom.
Lawmakers are debating a draft bill on general elections but the Indonesian Association of Journalists (AJI) said the country already had a press law as well as a press council to solve journalism-related disputes.
'We certainly don't need a law that threatens to send journalists to jail,' said Eko Maryadi, the co-ordinator of AJI Jakarta.
Article 260 of the bill says that an 'editor-in-chief who violates a ban on reporting on campaigns during a cool-off period will be sentenced to between three and six months in jail and fined between 1 million and 5 million rupiah [HK830 to HK4,130]'.
Indonesian journalists can be jailed for defamation, an offence local courts deal with under the criminal code rather than the press law.
The press law, passed by decree in 1999, is due for revision and some of its new provisions would limit journalists when covering religious and other sensitive issues.