Timor-Leste, an outlier as a progressive democratic country in increasingly authoritarian Southeast Asia, has stepped back from a cliff that many of its neighbors have deliberately fallen into. The former Portuguese colony has shelved a controversial draft law that aims to criminalize defamation, thereby allowing press freedom advocates some temporary relief.
The law imitates a series of moves across the region to impose harsh penalties against journalists. In the Philippines, the Duterte administration denied the renewal of the broadcast license of ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcaster. Also, Maria Ressa, the head of local news outlet Rappler, was charged with her second cyber libel case in early December 2020 for a tweet that contained a screenshot of a news article.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has repeatedly invoked Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act to prosecute journalists. One of the individuals charged by authorities was South China Morning Post correspondent Tashny Sukumaran, who reported in May last year on raids in the country’s COVID-19 red zones.
Timor-Leste’s proposed law, which was presented by the country’s Ministry of Justice in June 2020, aims to introduce heavier penalties for “offenses against honour, good name and reputation”— which are not defined in the bill—with the punishment becoming more severe depending on the methods of distribution and the occupation of the supposed victims.
For example, stating “an offensive opinion” that hurts someone’s “honour and prestige” can result in a year-long prison sentence or a fine. Meanwhile, a newspaper article or social media post that criticizes a politician or religious leader can result in a three-year jail term or a fine. If enacted, the proposed law may end Timor-Leste’s sustained embrace of press freedom. According to Reporters Without Borders, no journalist has been imprisoned in the country since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
Manuel Cárceres de Costa, the county’s justice minister, justified the proposal by saying that it will “encourage people to respect leaders more.”
As the revival of the proposed defamation law still looms large, press freedom advocates campaign—through rallies and warnings to boycott news from official government sources—to have the bill permanently shelved. (Photo by Timor-Leste Journalists Association [AJTL])
“Criminalization would be a setback for Timor-Leste democracy,” Virgilio Guterres, the president of the Timor-Leste Press Council, told Asia Democracy Chronicles. “We strongly stand against the initiative.”
The bill brings to mind the Media Law passed by parliament in May 2014 and that contained provisions that Human Rights Watch said “would permit the government to impose severe constraints on journalists and the media.” These included the creation of a government-funded Press Council, with two parliament-appointed members “of recognized integrity and professional merit.” The Council has the power to “grant, renew, suspend and revoke” the credentials of journalists.
Justification for criminalization
“The justification of the government to criminalize defamation is just to protect and defend their power,” added Alberico da Costa Junior, spokesperson of the Movement Against the Criminalization of Defamation and Injury and secretary-general of the Timor-Leste Journalists Association (AJTL).
Last August, Timor-Leste President Francisco Guterres signaled that the government was walking back from pushing the proposal. During a meeting with La’o Hamutuk, a social justice advocacy group, he said that the draft proposal was not a priority of his administration.
In spite of the seemingly dimmer prospects for the law, opponents remain cautious, partly because the government has yet to publicly cancel the draft proposal. To counter the proposed law and any future moves to criminalize defamation, press freedom advocates are seeking the intervention of the courts and the legislative branch, and are waging a public relations battle to chip away support for the proposal.
This pushback on government’s attempt to muzzle press freedom is expected to continue until the government reverses course and demonstrates a firm resolve to protect press freedom.
When Timor-Leste celebrated its two decades as a nation in August 2019, there was no denying its firm commitment to democracy. It’s been dubbed “the most democratic country in Southeast Asia,” based on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index.
Pauline Tweedie, the country representative of The Asia Foundation in Timor-Leste, described it then as “a democratic country in which the principles of democracy, including free and fair elections, protection of human rights, and upholding the rule of law, are not only enshrined in its constitution but also practiced by its leaders.”
In a region “increasingly marked by democratic regression,” Timor-Leste has become something of a beacon of hope for democratic progress in Southeast Asia, said Dr. Avery Poole of the University of Melbourne’s School of Government in an article she wrote.
The picture that has emerged of late, however, is of a nation struggling to keep the flame of democracy alight.
The backdrop for the push for criminal defamation is turmoil at the highest levels of Timor-Leste politics. Over the past few years, there has been a political deadlock in parliament, stemming from the appointment of the first minority government in the country’s history in 2017. A year later, the country’s president dissolved the parliament and called for new elections. Political uncertainty came with economic consequences early this year when the governing coalition — Majority Alliance for Progress — failed to pass a national budget, causing financial problems for the county just before the COVID-19 pandemic damaged the economic performance of the whole region and the rest of the world.
Former opposition party Fretilin then backed Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak’s Popular Liberation Party in exchange for key government posts. The National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (Congresso Nacional de Reconstrução de Timor or CNRT), founded by former President Xanana Gusmao and which dropped out of the governing coalition, continues to question the legitimacy of what it calls a “de facto” government.
The political instability has so far had no effect on the freedom of journalists in the country. Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 Press Freedom Index ranked Timor-Leste 78th out of 179 nations, up from 84th place during the previous year. The study attributed the improvement to “relatively unrestricted coverage” of political turmoil in the country.
Nonetheless, the power struggle appears to have made the ruling coalition more sensitive to criticism. With this newfound sensitivity comes a more hardline view of political dissent. In the draft law, “offenses to honour” of public officials were described as “a perverse way of exercising political action.”
The government’s main argument for amending the penal code is social media, which it says has advanced to the point that relevant laws need to be amended.
“Since the adoption of the Penal Code in 2009, access to social media has become widespread in Timor-Leste, which today is less limited than it was then, and access to social networks has become widespread in particular, through mobile devices. Now, while it is certain that the increasingly widespread access to such means of communication provides rapid and democratic access to information, it is no less certain that it poses increased risks, with regard to the offense of honour, of the good name and of reputation of individuals,” the draft proposal read.
Unified opposing force
Press freedom advocates immediately coalesced against the proposal as a unified opposing force. Journalism organizations such as the Press Council and the AJTL joined civil society leaders and academics to form the Movement Against the Criminalization of Defamation and Injury, which submitted a petition to the country’s Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The AJTL also organized a two-day demonstration in front of the Ministry of Justice’s offices.
The proposed defamation law can curtail free speech as well as limit journalists and whistleblowers’ ability to expose corrupt individuals holding public positions. (Photo by AJTL)
If passed, the draft defamation law will run counter to Timor-Leste’s current standing as “the most democratic country in Southeast Asia.” (Photo by AJTL)
According to Zevonia Vieira, the president of AJTL and the politics editor of online news publication Neon Metin, journalists have expanded their tactics to go beyond petitions and demonstrations. They have organized to leverage their mutualistic arrangement with politicians, threatening a boycott of all news from official government sources. This meant that politicians may be limited in publicizing their projects and policies.
“We want to make them scared,” Vieira said.
The proposal’s opponents have some powerful backers, foremost of whom is former president and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta. In an interview last June, Ramos-Horta said: “I appeal to the Prime Minister to tell the government that we have other priorities. Let us give our society total freedom to speak and criticize.”
Jonas Guterres, who previously served as an advisor for the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission, warned that the draft law, if enacted, may undermine any efforts to curb corruption. In an article published in The Diplomat, he said: “Fighting corruption is not only the responsibility of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the General Prosecutor’s Office. It is a national fight, and investigative journalists and whistleblowers play a vital role in exposing corruption, especially if it involves wrongdoings by politicians, government officials, or powerful people.”
A month after the proposal was announced, the government said that it was withdrawing the provision that would double or triple a prison sentence if the subject of the defamation was a church or government official. Critics, however, remained unfazed. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) dismissed the announcement as a transparent ruse because the proposal continued to classify defamation as a criminal offense.
“The only ‘concession’ offered by the Ministry of Justice turns out to be no concession at all. All it achieves is a clumsy attempt to blunt the serious and well-founded criticisms levelled by civil society groups,” the IFJ said in a statement.
The ambiguity of the draft law’s status has sent mixed signals and left opponents with varying expectations in relation to its possible resurrection.
“They will discuss it again. We know that freedom everywhere is a threat to politicians,” Guterres said.
Nevertheless, press freedom advocates are not sitting still. Vieira said the Timorese press will continue to fight for free expression and press freedom in their country.
According to Guterres, the Press Council is involved in a campaign to push for a resolution that would codify resistance to criminal defamation. The initiative, which targets parliament and the Court of Appeal — the highest court in the country— aims to reject the current draft law and bar all future legislative proposals for criminalizing defamation.
Press freedom defenders have also organized a media blitz aimed at dismantling support for the proposal. “(We want) to widen the discussion so that the public understands the negative side of criminalizing defamation. The public will now see this as a threat if defamation is criminalized,” Guterres said.
If the pushback against the proposal fails, critics say that it would mark a return to the suppression of Portuguese colonial times and, in the not-so-distant past, Indonesian occupation, which ended in 1999, after almost two decades and a half of the nation’s struggle for its hard-won independence. ●
Christian Brazil Bautista has worked in both the United States and the Philippines, reporting and editing for The Real Deal, Digital Trends, Financial Times, Real Estate Weekly, Yahoo! Southeast Asia, and Rappler.
