Want a raunchy mag? Just say 'ahem'

New anti-pornography law before parliament under fire from intellectuals and media figures who fear it will limit freedom of expression

Straits Times
Monday, February 6, 2006

By Devi Asmarani

Jakarta --- Clearing your throat while browsing at a news-stand in Jakarta could be an embarrassing experience for some.

Say "Ahem," and the vendor may quietly slip into your hands the latest copy of EHm, a glossy 130-page, full-colour monthly magazine celebrating the female body and sex, in pictures and text.

The magazine typically puts a picture of a scantily-clad foreign celebrity on its cover, but its appeal is the sexy pictorial spreads of local "babes of the month."

Chief editor Arsi Iradiawan, 41, says he chose the name so buyers could get it by feigning an irritated throat.

"It saves them from embarrassment,' he said at the small, sparsely-furnished South Jakarta office from which his four-man editorial team operates.

EHm looks like FHM, the best-selling international men's magazine, which has an Indonesian edition. In any case, it is one of about two dozen risque magazines crowding news-stands in the world's most populous Muslim country, causing increasing unhappiness in more conservative quarters.

The publications range from FHM and Maxim to local glossies like EHm and newsprint tabloid magazines. They sell for about S$6 on average and business is thriving.

Mr Arsi, an architect by training who ventured into the magazine business after losing a job in a bank, admits to being surprised by his own quick success.

Starting small with a 600 million rupiah (S$105,000) investment, he put out 8,000 copies of EHm in December 2004, targeting readers in Jakarta mostly. Within three months, the magazine's circulation climbed to 35,000, with readers in their 20s and early 30s, in cities across the archipelago.

Like most other girlie magazines, EHm's earnings are driven by sales, not advertisements.

But Mr Arsi's happy days could be numbered.

Indonesia's previously-sluggish conservative lobby has been energised by the announcement by a group of businessmen that they plan to start a local edition of Playboy next month.

Islamic leaders, politicians and social commentators have formed a united front to call for a ban on the proposed publication.

Mr Ponti Carolus, director of PT Velvet Silver Media, which holds the magazine's Indonesian publishing rights, said he had not expected the vehement opposition.

He had, after all, made it clear that Playboy Indonesia would not have the nude picture spreads which have made the international magazine, along with founder Hugh Hefner and women in bunny suits, recognised the world over.

Given the furore, he has delayed the magazine's debut.

With the bunny beaten back -- for now -- the spotlight has inevitably turned on other magazines, reviving an old debate on whether the freeing of tight controls over the publishing industry has led to sliding moral standards.

The debate first came about with the rise in the number of risque publications in the years following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998.

There were tamer magazines, like Matra and Popular, in the late 1980s. These still lead the market, with each selling 55,000 to 60,000 copies a month on average.

At the bottom end are a dozen or so low-priced tabloids, with titles like Exotica, Lelaki (Men), Top, Wow and Lipstik, which carry pictures of half-naked women in suggestive poses and sex-related articles, some of them lifted straight from the Internet.

None of the risque publications makes the Top 10 list of Indonesia's magazines and tabloids. Their circulations are "too small" to make the nationwide survey on readership, according to top media research company AC Nielsen.

Yet, the outcry against them is growing louder.

It can be traced to a growing assertion of Islamic identity in recent years, with hardline Muslim groups campaigning aggressively for the adoption of Islamic laws. Conservative Islamic groups cannot but view the magazines as smut, running counter to their religious values.

Spearheading the anti-smut move are social watchdogs linked to Islamic groups, like the Prosperous Justice Party, and their concerns extend beyond magazines.

Ms Azimah Subagyo, who heads the Association of People Against Pornography, declared: "The media bombards people with pornography, generally increasing people's tolerance for it."

"In the past, women wearing bikinis constituted downright pornography. Now, people argue whether or not nudity is pornography," she said.

Over the past seven years, these watchdog groups have been lobbying for stiffer laws against pornography in the media and the arts. Their definition of pornography is wide, covering condom advertisements, articles on prostitution and even ballroom dancing competitions.

Their campaigns are criticised by the artistic community and moderate Muslims for taking morality standards to ridiculous levels.

And those behind the new wave of racy publications have also responded by insisting that their pictures are tasteful and do not amount to pornography.

The publishers maintain that articles such as those on sex parties and how-to bedroom advice are factual and meet accepted journalistic standards.

So far, the law has not been clear on where it stands. In 2000, police investigated several magazines and tabloids. Only Matra was found guilty for two of its more suggestive covers and editor Nano Riantiarno was given a five-month suspended jail term.

But a new anti-pornography law now before parliament attempts to list what, exactly, is unacceptable.

The proposed penalties range from one year's imprisonment for "showing body parts considered sensual," to 12 years for displays of nudity, to 20 years for child pornography.

The Bill has predictably come under fire from intellectuals and media figures, who assert that it will stifle freedom of expression.

They point out that the government can prevent pornography in mainstream media by enforcing existing media laws, as well as the criminal code.

Said Matra's editor-in-chief, Ms Sri Rusdy, 50: "The law is too wide-ranging and narrow-minded. If it is passed, we fear the jails will be swamped -- artists will have no freedom to create and hypocrisy will be pervasive."

Still, the proposed law looks very likely to be passed this year, given the widespread support for it among lawmakers of all creeds.

The day may come when a man who clears his throat at a news-stand will be given lozenges instead.

Date Posted: 2/6/2006