Indonesia constitutional court nixes restrictions on anti-government speech News
Indonesia constitutional court nixes restrictions on anti-government speech

[JURIST] The Indonesian Constitutional Court [official website] Tuesday voided Articles 154 and 155 of the Indonesian criminal code prohibiting acts of inciting hatred against the government or the distribution of materials voicing opposition against the government, ruling that Dutch colonial-era articles violated the freedom of expression guaranteed in the 1945 Indonesian Constitution [text]. The ruling stems from an appeal filed by Aceh activist Panji Utomo, who was sentenced to prison for leading protests against the government [WorldBank backgrounder, PDF] in September 2006.

Last December, the Constitutional Court analogously voided Articles 134, 136, and 137 of the criminal code [Amnesty report], ruling that prohibitions on "insulting the President or Vice-President" violated the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Indonesian constitution. In February, after Indonesia convicted and jailed at least 18 people for peacefully advocating Papua [Wikipedia backgrounder] independence, Human Rights Watch criticized Indonesia for continuing to criminalize peaceful dissent. AP has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.