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Despite critics’ doubts over aspects of the Freedom of Information Law, journalists can rest assured that their access to information will be made much easier, activists say.

“There’s no need to play cat-and-mouse anymore when tracking down information, since all public institutions are now obliged to make the information available,” Agus Sudibyo, head of public complaints and ethics enforcement at the Press Council, said in a discussion on Monday about the enactment of the 2008 Freedom of Information Law and its impact on the press.

The event was also held to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

Critics of the law say the lack of clear definitions in the supporting regulations render several key articles prone to multiple interpretations that will make its enforcement problematic.

For instance, Article 51 states that anyone deliberately using unlawfully obtained public information could face up to a year in prison and a fine of Rp 5 million ($555). “The article ... doesn’t define ‘unlawful’ in this sense,” Agus said.

He added that if information was used for deceit or extortion, the offender should be charged under the Criminal Code.

He said the Freedom of Information Law should only provide a legal guarantee for access to information, but should not stipulate prosecution in the event of violations. But he also said members of the press need not worry about the law hindering their job of reporting the news.

“It’s fine to be cautious, but there’s no need to be up in arms,” he said.

Another panelist at the discussion, investigative journalist Dandhy Dwi Laksono, said most journalists would not “depend too much” on the law when determining what type of information belonged in the public domain.

He cited a case in which he and some colleagues had exercised self-censorship in not reporting on the medical records of former Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2005 for graft in a helicopter-procurement project.

He said the implementation of the law would have more of an impact on public institutions than on the press, but added that media organizations could benefit from it by periodically accessing information from these institutions to update their databanks.

Dandhy said that if this were feasible, it would be a valuable lesson on how to implement the law properly.

Agus said “60 percent of problems in enforcing the law are caused by government bodies’ internal mechanisms,” as not all directorates in a ministry willingly provided information to the ministry’s information bureau.

Information Commission chairman Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih said the law should not be treated as standalone legislation, but was intricately linked to other laws such as the 1999 Press Law and the 2009 Archive Law.

He also said public institutions had no reason to fear the Freedom of Information Law and should not greet its advent by shredding certain documents.

This, Ahmad said, would violate the Archive Law, which stipulates harsh punishment for an institution’s failure to file its documents in the National Archive.

“The sanctions under the Freedom of Information Law are less severe than under the other laws, so there’s no need to worry,” Ahmad said.