Editor of Playboy Indonesia on trial

The editor of the Indonesian version of Playboy is on trial, for publishing material considered ‘over the line’.

Indonesian Playboy came out in April, I haven’t seen a copy but by all accounts it was pretty tame, wioth no nude photos at all. Jakarta must be a funny place to live. You have a ton of nightclubs and bars, all kinds of western stuff going on, AND groups of hardline Muslims trying to wreck everything. One Muslim group threatened to attack the offices of Playboy, earlier in the year.

Playboy’s editor Erwin Arnada is on trial, for having the final say on the published material. The controversial anti-pornography bill created heated debate over here, and brought regular Indonesians out onto the street to protest. The bill focused on 2 areas, pornografi and pornoaksi (basically using suggestive material in any kind of media, or simply participating in it). Needless to say, anything could be construed as pornoaksi, leaving people open to abuse from corrupt local cops / special interest groups.