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The Constitutional Court is scheduled to hear the first legal challenge to the controversial Pornography Law today, after several Christian, student and ethnic minority organizations from North Sulawesi Province filed for a judicial review.

The groups, represented by prominent attorney OC Kaligis, are challenging three articles of the law, which was passed by the House of Representatives last October and signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono despite widespread criticism and vows by some provinces not to enforce the legislation.

According to Nallom Kurniawan, a Constitutional Court expert, the groups are challenging the definition of pornography in Article 1, Article 4 on the production and distribution of pornographic materials, and Article 10, which bans public performances deemed pornographic.

"The first [challenge] is on the definition of pornography,” he said recently. “The definition itself is absurd and may lead to conflicting interpretations. If the head is weak, then the whole body of the law is weak. [The groups’] main concern is cultural preservation, which may be endangered by the law.”

The Pornography Law has been widely panned for its possible negative impact on women’s and minority rights, pluralism and freedom of expression. Lawmakers were accused of adopting the legislation to appease Muslim groups ahead of the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

Still, authorities said last week that it would be almost impossible to enforce the law. Public prosecutors, the heads of the South and Central Jakarta district courts, the police, and experts from the Constitutional Court all agreed that poor public acceptance, unclear terminology and contradictory articles were a hindrance to the law’s execution, and more government regulations were needed to clarify exactly what the law meant.

Fachmy Badoh, a senior official at Indonesia Corruption Watch, said the House had failed to read public opinion on the Pornography Law.

“Lawmakers should stand for the aspirations of their constituents,” Fachmy said.

Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundawi, who voted against the legislation during committee hearings, said she was happy that the law could not be implemented.

Eva said a number of provincial officials had misused the anti-pornography law. “The governor of West Java used the law in an attempt to ban jaipongan , a traditional West Javanese dance, based on his subjective opinion of it,” she said.

Sundawi, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said the biggest problem with the law was the fact that the public was allowed to enforce it themselves. She said such a setup could encourage vigilantism.

“A certain group of people could use the porn law as a way to attack the cultural beliefs of others,” she said.

However, Balkan Kaplale, the former chairman of the committee that drafted the legislation, argued that the police are enforcing the law effectively.

“The Central Jakarta Police once stopped a dangdut singer who was allegedly violating the porn law,” he said. “The law has been effectively implemented. As far as public reception goes, I guess people now are realizing that the law is needed. Many provinces that rejected the law at first are now silent. ”