"The Jakarta Post" quoted the president as saying that Indonesia should achieve the balance of safeguarding its national security at the same time protecting the principles of freedom.

"It would be wrong if we have to sacrifice rules on good governance, transparency and administration in the name of state secrecy," the president said.

The pending bill sparked protests from civil society as it called for the death penalty or 20 years' imprisonment plus a maximum fine of Rp 5 billion ($505,000) for anyone found guilty of leaking state secrets.

Members of the Indonesian House of Representatives committee studying the bill earlier had sought to allay the public's fear that the bill will effectively strangle free expression in the country.

The "Jakarta Globe" said that the deputy chairman of the Press Council, Leo Batubara, on 14 September, called on the President to intervene.

“If President SBY is still committed to good governance, anti-corruption, freedom of the press and the principles of accountability and transparency, then he must stop the bill’s deliberation,” Batubara said. “He has the right to intervene in the drafting process. All ministers responsible for drafting the bills are his subordinates.”

Batubara added that this bill, if passed into law, will nullify the reforms started in 1998, which had laid the groundwork for freedom, transparency and accountability

State news agency Antara said the President prefers more discussion on the issue.

"Let's put it in the right context. We can sit together if needed, if the bill still needs socialization and still needs more time to prepare, so that the law becomes a solution for how we live in the country and how to run the government," said the president in his opening speech at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday night.

He added that the law should not be used by the bureaucracy to avoid transparency in its transactions.

SOURCE

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (http://www.seapa.org) is a coalition of press freedom advocacy groups from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Established in November 1998, it is the only regional network with the specific mandate of promoting and protecting press freedom throughout Southeast Asia. SEAPA is composed of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (Indonesia), the Jakarta-based Institute for the Study of the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Thai Journalists Association. SEAPA also has partners in Malaysia, Cambodia, East Timor, and exiled Burmese media, and undertakes projects and programs for press freedom throughout the region.