Coming to you every two weeks, this newsletter will share the latest updates from Indonesia and the region to our global readers.

Here are this week’s highlights:

Ten years after the collapse of the New Order’s authoritarian regime, Indonesia, ironically, issued a law that brought back control against people’s freedom of expression.

The Information Law was issued in 2008 with a good intention to protect the public from possible threats rising from digital and communication technology.

Yet, politicians and government officials have been misusing the notorious law to protect their interests and silence political dissents.

Analysing data from 2009 to 2019, Usman Hamid, a lecturer from Indonesia Jentera School of Law, writes how the law has hurt freedom of speech.

And it is getting worse under Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, a man who won the 2014 presidential election for his promises to uphold human rights and democratic values.

Meanwhile, Alicia Izharuddin of Harvard University criticised the Indonesian government’s plan to ban the use of niqab in government offices. She explains why the ban does not make sense.