Ma’af, Nia Danata! Jakarta Needs More Than New Censor Rules

•    Grovelling Gramedia’s Book–Burning Bonanza – Appeasing Fanatics 

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Interesting to read in the ever-astonishing Jakarta Post, whose parent company Gramedia perpetrated the most glaring example of sectarian censorship not that long ago, a Nazi-style book-burning to placate Islamist bigots, that somebody’s claiming…

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Indonesian movie industry still not entirely free from censorship:

Since the Jakarta Post has never condemned Gramedia’s infamous grovel to jihadist fanatics, it’s not surprising that this complaint comes not from JP editors but from a lady named Nia Dinata.

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She’s a real wee cutie, as you can see, but she’s also a film director, who says, quite rightly, that the Indonesian movie industry is still in shackles as judgmental groups are reluctant to accept the freedom of expression by artists which are often out of the box.

But Nia is surely guilty of understatement!

It’s not only ‘out of the box‘ movies that get hammered, and the hammers are not only wielded by sectarian nutjobs (which I imagine is what she means by judgmental groups)

It wasn’t just silly little censor cuts imposed on the film ‘Noah!’

I usually enjoy Russel Crowe films but found ‘Noah’ stupid and boring to watch. Yet why on earth was the entire movie outlawed throughout Indonesia?

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‘Noah’ Banned – Who’s Next? State Censors or Sectarian Enforcers? 

Why?

Because it upset violent bigot gangs and the non-violent bigot cliques, much the same sorts as the book burned by Gramedia also did!

And we’ve had to report other examples of the most extreme elements in Indonesia doing their dirty worst to tell Indonesian people what they may or may not watch.

‘Cinta Tapi Beda!’ – First Blood to IslamoNazis! 

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Cinta Tapi Beda was about love between a guy and gal of different religions, and had the foul fanatics frothing, as they often do here.

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Clearly a film for young people, teens especially, coming up to the age when they think of marriage!

So Nia’s suggestion this week, that  instead of censoring, “Age classification must be clear. Every line of industry, be it movie theaters or TV, must be required to include age classification,” does not make that much sense.

There are other films we’ve looked at, such as this –Soekarno’ Film – IslamoNazis Threaten Cinema Raids!  – and I’m too busy today to wax indignant about the clouded cleavage crisis on our tv screens, or the general tv censorship issue, covered in previous posts like this…

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Dimana Bokong2nya? – Where Are Our Buttocks? 

… but while vigilante hoodlums should be truncheoned by stern law enforcement officers out of their pretensions to any role in censorship…

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…even official censorship here needs a lot more reforming than Nia suggests, to drag it into the 20th, never mind the 21st Century!

Never mind, her heart’s in the right place.