Freedom of expression and the media in Timor Leste - Article 19

119 Pages·2006·5.68 MB·English

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This report is a product of cooperation between Internews East Timor and ARTICLE
19. From Internews, Miriam Lyons (media law advisor), John Rouw (media law
advisor), Lyndal Barry (former Chief of Party), Jan McArthur (former Chief of Party),
Christine Kearney, and Lisa Rogers (former Chief of Party) researched, wrote and
edited this report. Legal analysis was provided by Toby Mendel (Law Programme
Director of ARTICLE 19). Copy-editing was done by Dini Widiastuti (Asia
Programme Officer of ARTICLE 19). We also appreciate the contribution made by
Karen Polglaze (National Democratic Institute), as well as Emma Flatt and Joanna
Hoare, who proof-read the report. The cover was designed by Mardiana Tukiran
We would like to thank the European Commission for providing funding for this
study and seven other baseline studies on freedom of expression and the media. These
studies are parts of the project “Promoting and Protecting Freedom of Expression and
Freedom of Information in the ASEAN Region”. We would also like to thank other
donors who have contributed to this project: the Open Society Foundation, the Royal
Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok and UNESCO.
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1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..7
Significant Findings...........................................................................................8
Recommendations .............................................................................................8
Limitations of this paper....................................................................................9
2. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................9
The Press Law...................................................................................................9
Broadcast Regulation.......................................................................................10
Defamation......................................................................................................11
Content Restrictions.........................................................................................12
Access to Information......................................................................................12
Informal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression..............................................13
3. BACKGROUND...............................................................................14
3.1. History..........................................................................................................14
3.2. Social and Political Context..........................................................................15
The Church......................................................................................................16
Civil society.....................................................................................................17
Language.........................................................................................................18
Multinationals..................................................................................................18
Peace and security...........................................................................................19
Legal system....................................................................................................20

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4. INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATIONS....23
4.1. International Standards.................................................................................23
4.2. The Constitution of Timor-Leste...................................................................25
4.3. Rights to Reputation.....................................................................................28
4.4. Freedom of Expression and the Media..........................................................28
4.5. Pluralism ......................................................................................................30
Public Service Broadcasting................................................................................31
4.7. Independence of Media Bodies.....................................................................33
4.8. Freedom of Information................................................................................34
4.9. Restrictions on the Right to Freedom of Expression......................................35
4.10. Derogation from Rights...............................................................................38
5. MEDIA SITUATION........................................................................40
5.1. Media Overview...........................................................................................40
5.2. Print Media...................................................................................................42
5.3. Radio............................................................................................................43
Community Radio............................................................................................44
5.4. Public Broadcasting – Radio and TV............................................................44
5.5. Other Media..................................................................................................46
5.6. Sector Representation...................................................................................46
6. PRESS REGULATION.....................................................................48
6.1. Introduction..................................................................................................48
6.2. Background and Context...............................................................................49
6.3. Rights of the Press........................................................................................50
6.4. Protection of Sources or the Right to Repudiate............................................51
6.5. Obligations of the Press................................................................................52
Fair Trial and Religious Norms........................................................................52
The Rights to Response and Correction............................................................53
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6.6. The National Press........................................................................................54
6.7. The Press Council.........................................................................................55
Membership and funding.................................................................................56
Press Council for Timor-Leste?.......................................................................56
6.8. Code of Ethics..............................................................................................57
7. BROADCAST REGULATION.........................................................59
7.1. Reasons to Regulate......................................................................................59
7.2. Broadcast Legislation – Current Status..........................................................61
7.3. Plans for New Legislation.............................................................................65
Community broadcasters..................................................................................66
8. DEFAMATION.................................................................................68
8.1. General Principles of Defamation Law..........................................................69
Public officials and bodies...............................................................................69
Defences..........................................................................................................70
8.2. Criminal Liability for Defamation.................................................................72
General problems with criminal defamation.....................................................72
Specific Problems with Criminal Defamation..................................................74
The defamation proposals for Timor-Leste.......................................................77
The Kashiwagi case.........................................................................................78
8.3. Civil Liability for Defamation.......................................................................79
The Civil Code Provisions on Defamation.......................................................79
The Suara Timor Lorosae case.........................................................................81
9. CONTENT RESTRICTIONS............................................................84
9.1. The Immigration Law...................................................................................85
9.2. The Penal Code.............................................................................................86
The press, publishers and printers....................................................................87
Sedition and “political insult”..........................................................................87
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Chapter II: Crimes against the dignity of the President.....................................89
Chapter VIII: Crimes against public authority..................................................90
Chapter III: Crimes against friendly states.......................................................91
Chapters I and XIV: Security and decency.......................................................92
Chapter XVII: Secrets......................................................................................93
Hate Speech and Incitement to Commit Crime.................................................94
9.3. Indonesia’s False News Articles....................................................................96
10. ACCESS TO INFORMATION........................................................98
10.1. Introduction................................................................................................98
10.2. Government Information.............................................................................99
10.3. Principles of an Access to Information Regime..........................................100
10.4. Open Government......................................................................................101
10.5. The Government Gazette and Official Registers.........................................103
11. INFORMAL RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
.............................................................................................................105
11.1. Informal Harassment..................................................................................106
11.2. Intolerance of Critical Reporting................................................................108
11.3. Media Law Survey.....................................................................................112

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This report is a timely and invaluable guide to the complex legal framework
regulating the media in Timor-Leste. It will aid journalists for some time to come in
identifying the challenges to free and fair reporting. Created by experts in journalism
and the law, it considers the regulatory structure in Timor-Leste against the
background of international law, standards and practice, aiding a comparison with
best practice and highlighting grey areas in the current legal regime which may be
vulnerable to attacks on free expression.
Publication comes at a time when media development in our young country has
reached a crucial point: the government is considering making some speech a criminal
offence which could lead to reporters being imprisoned. Journalists and all supporters
of free expression must encourage law-makers to entrench a broad interpretation of
the Constitution’s rights to free expression and to reject the possibility of locking-up
people who merely express their opinion. The report is also being published as Timor-
Leste’s journalists are considering their role in the new democratic nation and looking
at how they can contribute to its future growth without compromising their
journalistic principles. And, as ever, journalists are honing their craft, grappling with
issues of professionalism and striving to improve fairness, accuracy and balance
which are the best defence against those who want to restrict what can be published.
Journalism around the world is coming under increased scrutiny and Timor-Leste is
no exception. Like members of the mass media elsewhere, Timorese journalists must
be unrelenting in their examination of their work, unafraid of constructive criticism
and able to justify every word reported. The fundamental importance of being able to
do that has been forcefully illustrated by the recent criticism of the newspaper Suara
Timor Lorosa’e which had to defend the accuracy and relevance of its reports into
cases of hunger in rural areas. Failure to do so undermines the credibility of individual
outlets and can compromise public confidence in the media in general, enabling those
who would restrict the publication of information to whittle away hard-fought rights.
In the short time since Timor-Leste won independence, its journalists have already
successfully campaigned for free expression rights to be guaranteed in the
Constitution. Now we must take on the challenge of defending and expanding them in
the face of onslaughts from government, people taking defamation actions, the
entreaties of old friends and the difficulties of building a democratic nation from the
ground up. It will not be enough for us to rely on the guarantees of the Constitution:
these must be backed up by subsidiary laws. But each new piece of legislation creates
an opportunity for opponents of free speech to place new limits on expression and we
must be vigilant in ensuring these rights are not eroded.
While the legal framework outlined in this report is complex, we should not be afraid
of new legislation as it is necessary to achieve aims such as the right of access to
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information guaranteed in the Constitution. Instead, we should take the lead in helping
to develop laws so they entrench those rights which enable us to inform the people
and perform the essential watchdog on authority function necessary to a modern
democracy.
Many journalists have helped the struggle to achieve independence for our small
country, some at the cost of their lives. We should honour our colleagues by never
giving up the new struggle we face today. As United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan said in 2002, Timor-Leste may be small, but it can be a bright light for the
world.

Virgilio Guterres
President, Timor Lorosae Journalists' Association (TLJA)
Managing Director, Rádio e Televisão de Timor-Leste
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