The Urgency of Law Enforcement Offenses of Defamation in Indonesia based on the Insignificance Principle

Abstract

Defamation in Indonesian law has been regulated by several regulations, one of which is Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE). The very subjective nature of this article is prone to causing violations of freedom of expression. The existing offense provides space for someone to criminalize another person for an act that is not significant with the characteristics/essential nature of criminal law. Therefore, the state needs to pay more attention to the operationalization of the offense so as not to cause excessive criminalization. It is necessary to renew the defamation offense that adopts the principle of insignificance in order to reduce excessive criminalization and guarantee human rights. Based on these thoughts, the authors conducted this research. The method used is juridical-normative. The approach used is a statutory approach and a conceptual approach.