[PRESS RELEASE] LBH Pers in Drapac Malaysia: Digital and Physical Threats to Indonesia’s Digital Activities

[August, 27 2025] Legal Aid Centre for the Press (LBH Pers) has arranged a session with the Topic “From Online Harassment to Pig Head Terror: Hybrid Repression in Shrinking Civic Spaces”. With the speakers Gema Gita Persada (LBH Pers), Linda Novi Trianita (Tempo), Vox Populi (Spring Revolution Security Myanmar), Shoon Naing (Journalist from Myanmar) and the Moderator Chikita Edrini Marpaung (LBH Pers). 

The digital and physical repression experienced by Indonesian Media called Tempo in March 2025 a severed pig’s head was delivered to journalist FCR as the host of Bocor Alus Politik Podcast following her investigative reporting. While Linda as a journalist also experiencing severe digital attacks while investigating the corruption cases. Friends from Myanmar Shoon and Vox Populi also share their experiences of structuralized and systematic digital attacks and repression addressing the journalist and access of information in general. How the current government led by the Coup has closed the access of information.Gema, as the Public Interest Lawyer of LBH Pers, wrapped up the discussion by outlining various advocacy efforts carried out by LBH Pers to ensure the protection of journalists as one of the foremost channels of information. She also emphasized the need for international solidarity in supporting advocacy efforts to build a digital democratic space, a process that will take considerable time.

Recently, Indonesia also experiencing a deeply concerning and recurring pattern of systemic violence, manifested most notably through enforced disappearances. These acts are not limited to demonstrators; digital activists have also been forcibly taken by state agents, with their whereabouts unacknowledged for hours or even days. Such practices are often carried out without legal justification or due process, representing a grave violation of human rights. LBH Pers hereby calls for international solidarity to support efforts in ending all forms of violence and human rights violations against civil society, particularly against digital activists who actively express their aspirations through social media.

We extend our appreciation to the Digital Rights Asia Pacific Assembly 2025 (DRAPAC25) for facilitating a collaborative forum together with Tempo and Spring Revolution Security in August 2025. Through this discussion, journalists, advocates, and digital rights defenders from various countries shared their experiences and strategies to confront hybrid repression.

The three-day engagement offered a valuable space to exchange knowledge with activists, researchers, human rights defenders, and open-source investigators from across the Asia-Pacific region. It also underscored the importance of ensuring that technical leadership is informed by diverse lived experiences—making collective solutions more grounded, inclusive, and impactful.

We express our gratitude to all panelists for their invaluable insights, and we reaffirm our commitment to advancing digital rights, freedom of expression, and the protection of civil society.

#DRAPAC25 #StopHybridRepression #DigitalRights #FreedomOfPress #FreedomOfExpression