The court found Prita's e-mail a mere complaint, therefore can't be considered as an act of defamation.

Microbloggers were sending updates from the session in real time and pooling comments on Twitter through the hashtags #sidangprita (Prita's trial) and #freeprita:

Enda: http://twitpic.com/vomos - Sudah di Sidang Prita PN Tangerang. Ramai oleh media dan relawan koin #sidangprita #freeprita

Ade_Novita:  Kita relawan koin yg hadir aja deg2an, ga kebayang perasaan prita.

ndorokakung: Vonis: prita tidak terbukti melanggar hukum. Membebaskan prita dari segala dakwaan

tikabanget: TEPUK TANGAN..!!! “HIDUP..!! HIDUP..!!” teriak orang-orang di #sidangprita

arijuliano: Jaksa masih mau pikir2 utk mengajukan banding putusan bebas Prita #sidangprita

ndorokakung: Kalau jaksa banding atas putusan bebas murni itu namanya kelewatan #sidangprita

Photo from Flickr page of enda 001

A few weeks ago Banten District Court found her guilty for defaming the hospital and ordered her to pay 204 million Rupiah, around US$ 21,680 (more stories can be read here and here).

The District Court's fine triggered a mass protest through an online and offline campaign for the collection of coins by netizens and the public in general. What started as an online movement attracted many people from various walks of life and ended up to be one of the biggest mass protests this year.

According to local journal Kompas, until December 20th, donations for Prita reached 825 million Rupiah (around US$ 87,812). The donations came from all corners of the archipelago, online transfers from Indonesian overseas, even a star-studded concert.

Prita's freedom is seen by many as a victorious people power.

Marihot Purnomo wrote on Kompasiana blog:

Putusan bebas Pengadilan Negeri Tangerang terhadap Prita adalah kado hukum akhir tahun 2009. Kegembiraan dan kebahagian tidak hanya dirasakan oleh Prita saja, namun juga ikut dirasakan oleh segenap rakyat Indonesia. Kepedulian dan perhatian masyarakat sungguh luar biasa terhadap kasus ini , dan barangkali ini sejarah bagi proses hukum di negara kita.

[…]

rakyat akan tahu dan merasakan walaupun tidak langsung terlibat dalam proses-proses hukum tersebut, apabila proses hukum tersebut penuh permainan dan atau direkayasa atas permintaaan pihak2 tertentu sekedar memenuhi “seleranya” atau keinginannya,dan apalagi persoalan hukum tersebut menyentuh rasa keadilan masyarakat.

A hope for a cleaner judicial system

Prita's acquital is also seen as a ray of hope for a better judicial system in the country which is currently struggling to eradicate the Judicial Mafia, a group of corrupt police officers, judges and prosecutors.

Blogger Petrus Rampisela wrote a heartfelt post to the Tangerang High Court judge:

Bukan saja palu BAPAK telah menghancurkan tembok-ketidak-adilan, tapi PALU itu telah menghancurkan perasaan frustrasi dari 250 juta rakyat indonesia.

Alangkah hebatnya Pak putusan itu, bukan saja putusan ini telah membebaskan PRITA, tapi putusan ini telah membebaskan seluruh rakyat kita dari PUTUS ASA.

[..]

Untuk MAJELIS HAKIM YANG MULIA, saya menundukkan kepala.

Revising the cyberlaw

Prita's struggle will remain in the mind of every Indonesian bloggers. Many said that Prita's case won't be the last one to make the news. Therefore, Indonesian netizens are in the move to revise the electronic transaction and information law (UU ITE).

Article 27 subsection 3 of the Indonesian cyberlaw is infamously deemed by the public as a draconian law destined to oppress the freedom of speech.

On the same day Prita's trial took place, the Ministry of Communication and Information  Tifatul Sembiring told the press that the government has agreed to revise the cyberlaw [id] and that that the government is ready to discuss and receive inputs from the people. However, Tifatul couldn't say when exactly the law revision will begin.

Some officials, including the military, cheered the decision taken by the censorship agency saying that the movie would open up an old wound and could jeapordize the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Australia.

The international press criticized the ban and questioned Indonesia's freedom of expression. However, when the Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik asked to comment about the ban, he told a local newpaper - The Jakarta Globe - that the ban is “for the country’s interest, the security and welfare of the people in the future” adding that the movie is banned mainly because it is packed with political content.

Jogjakarta blogger Rawins wonders why the government doesn't train the people to think critically:

Kenapa masyarakat kita tak dibelajari untuk berpikir dewasa dengan main cekal semacam itu. Padahal dengan pencekalan itu, masyarakat justru malah penasaran dan mendongkrak popularitas film tersebut.

Rob Baiton who blogs at The RAB Experience, said that the ban doesn't come to him as a surprise:

It was hardly surprising that the Indonesian Censorship Board (Lembaga Sensor Film / LSF) slapped a ban on the film Balibo. The film tells the story of five journalists killed in Balibo while covering the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. It also tells that story from the perspective of Roger East (who was ultimately murdered on the docks of Dili) and Jose Ramos Horta.

Patrick Guntensperger, a professional writer/analyst based in Jakarta, reviewed the movie on his blog.

In the first place, controversy aside, the movie is a terrific one. It is an exciting, authentic depiction of high drama and adventure; the fact that it is a true story only adds to its fascination. And the director and producers stand behind their version of the events. This is not a movie that “was inspired by actual events” or “based on a true story”. The title sequence states unequivocally that “this is a true story”.

In conclusion Patrick said that, above all reasons, the movie should be watched as a movie:

There is little point really in recounting much more of the plot of the story; suffice it to say that the Indonesian government has one story and pretty much everyone who has investigated the incidents has another, utterly different one. This is a movie. And it is a very good movie. Watch it as a movie. And if it interests you enough, do your own research into the historicity of the script.

Indonesian Independent Journalists Association (AJI Indonesia) said that the movie is highly educative and should not be banned.

It launched a Press Release [id] on its website, saying:

Keputusan LSF tersebut bertentangan dengan prinsip kebebasan berekspresi, kebebasan berapresiasi dan tidak menghormati hak masyarakat untuk tahu.Menurut Pihak LSF pelarangan film tersebut akan “membuka luka lama” konflik Indonesia dengan Australia dan Timor Leste. Alasan tersebut terkesan berlebihan.

[…]

AJI Indonesia menduga, pelarangan film tersebut sangat politis karena film tersebut mengungkap pelanggaran HAM oleh tentara Indonesia berupa pembantaian lima jurnalis asing di Balibo, Timor Leste pada 1975. Pelarangan film tersebut terkesan untuk menutup-nutupi keterlibatan sejumlah perwira Indonesia dalam pembantaian jurnalis itu.

AJI demands the censorship board to revoke the ban:

AJI Indonesia meminta agar pelarangan film “Balibo Five” dicabut. Pemutaran film ini penting untuk memberikan informasi kepada publik Indonesia mengenai peristiwa tersebut dari sudut pandang lain dari apa yang disampaikan pemerintah Indonesia selama ini.

[…] Film tersebut juga menjadi peringatan bahwa pembunuhan terhadap jurnalis harus diusut tuntas, pelakunya harus diadili.

Despite the ban, AJI screened the movie last Thursday in Jakarta. The free public screening was attended by hundreds of journalists and students.

Brett McGuire on his blog Spruiked firmly believes that the government shouldn't ban the movie:

Should the government ban the movie? Probably not. Sure, it opens old wounds, but this helps the healing process. Most Indonesians know very little about East Timor. Thirty years later and most still believe the New Order fairytale that the East Timorese invited Indonesia to take over from the Portuguese.

Should the government ban the movie? Banning movies seems a little heavy handed. It's something that we expect religious leaders to do, not democratically elected governments. Still, this government seems to have forgotten that the New Order ended 10 years ago.

Balibo is a name of a small town in Timor Leste, how the East Timor formally called itself after the 1999 referendum which marked its independence from the Republic of Indonesia, situated at the west side of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara.

Salary of a factory worker in Jakarta is roughly US$ 106 per month.

Indonesian net users are buzzing to collect the sum in form of coins because they are outraged by the court decision and they hope the coins will overwhelm the hospital, said one activist to local newspaper Kompas.

“When justice is spared, we collect coins”, says tagline of Koin Keadilan, coins for justice, a new website dedicated to collect coin donation to pay Prita's fine.

Image on www.koinkeadilan.com

An online declaration on the site says:

Tentang cara, kita bisa dan boleh berbeda pendapat. Misalnya tentang perlu atau tak perlu dalam pengumpulan koin. Yang pasti kita sama-sama di posisi ini: rasa keadilan kita terlukai. Spirit kita pun sama, bahwa keangkuhan kekuasaan yang ingin mengenyahkan kebebasan berpendapat melalui kriminalisasi harus kita lawan.

Protests and solidarity tweets are being sent out using the hashtags #freeprita and #helpprita.

AdibHidayat: Rencana acara akan dibuat di Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta. Detail akan kami update secepatnya. Konser Amal Pengumpulan Coin #freeprita

Treespotter: Dear All, drop a coin for Prita - drop a coin for common sense. Or lots of coins. She needs 2,5 tons of it. http://koinkeadilan.com/
el15abeth: Social media does not expire..we know Prita is innocent. The verdict will only give Omni hospital a bad rep. #freeprita

hiYano: #freeprita gambaran sebuah “dpr online” yang bisa lebih “berbahaya” daripada “dpr jalanan” jangan pernah remehkan kami yang “online”

Legal experts said that Prita's prosecution under the new cyber law is unfair because the law won't be fully implemented before April 2010.

Blogger Aditya share his thoughts about the power of Microblogging:

Saya percaya dengan kekuatan jejaring sosial untuk menyebarkan kabar ini seluas-luasnya, paling tidak se-massive gerakan facebookers untuk gerakan “cicak vs buaya”. Tapi, saya tidak tahu apakah uang sejumlah itu dalam bentuk koin busuk pula akan terkumpul dalam waktu cepat.

Bukan saya mau meremehkan gerakan ini, tapi tahu sama tahu, biasanya yang seperti ini hangat-hangat di awal saja. Mudah-mudahan tidak ya!

Concluding his post, Adithya asks his readers:

Kawan, jika dan hanya jika, Anda peduli dengan persoalan kebebasan berpendapat dan perlindungan atas hak-hak konsumen, bergeraklah.

HIV-positive patients are still feeling outcasted and discriminated in many healthcare centers.

The disease is still portrayed as a direct punishment from God for those who strayed from religious teachings.

Condoms are either frowned upon, ridiculed or condemned by religious organizations, making it difficult for the government to push its HIV prevention agenda.

Spreading fear among the youth

A widely spread wrong evidence can be deemed as the truth. This is what happened in Indonesia when a professor said that condoms couldn't prevent the spread of HIV virus because condoms have pores.

Chris Green on wrote his blog :

It was back in September 1995 that I first learned that condoms have pores. The report in the Republika daily, that condoms have holes 1/10 micron in diameter (whereas HIV is only 1/600 micron) must be correct because it was written by a professor: Prof. DR H. Dadang Hawari. […]

since then I have learned that Prof Dadang is typical example of our faith-based, rather than evidence-based, academics. And even IDI (writer's note: Indonesian Doctors Association) felt it must respond. So they arranged a debate on condoms, exactly 14 years ago today. This was held in the medical faculty of the prestigious University of Indonesia, and I was there. Prof Dadang was due to speak, presumably on the 'side of the angels.' However, he pulled out at the last moment, as he as always done when called upon to defend his position. So the debate went ahead, one-sided, without him.

[…]

The challenge of ‘pored' condoms has since come up, it seems, at least once a year.

[…]

At least that was until this year. Now it's just gotten worse! I've just read in the Jakarta Post (Students told to nip bad habits in the bud) about a young high-school student who has become ‘one of the 92 ambassadors of the Jakarta Stop AIDS campaign.' At 15 schools he has visited, he has told fellow students that “there is still a risk of contracting AIDS through the use of condoms because they have pores through which the virus can pass,” He says he learned what the Post rightly calls this 'scaremongering information' at a workshop organized by Unilever and Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (an NGO doing outreach on drugs to youth), and ‘based on material from the National AIDS Commission.'

HIV epidemic in the easternmost provinces

Indonesian Papua,  dubbed the star of the eastern Indonesia thanks to its natural resources and its pristine forests is also home to rare and exotic austronesian animals and insects.

In Papua, where sanitary and clean running water are often seen as luxury, condoms are either too scarce to find or to expensive to buy.

The slow response of the central government provoked an accusation of ethnic cleansing among the Papuans by allowing the virus to spread.

Papuan children. Photo by Flickr user 710928003

Ronald Gunawan, a doctor working for World Vision, wrote an opinion in a local newspaper, and copied it on his blog:

[…] Kerap terdengar keluhan masyarakat atas lambannya upaya mengatasi masalah HIV/AIDS di Tanah Papua. Tidak jarang keluhan ini dilanjutkan dengan tuduhan yang mengarah pada kesengajaan pihak tertentu untuk memusnahkan orang Papua melalui virus ini. Kalimat-kalimat seperti ini bukan hanya terungkap dalam pembicaraan tidak resmi, tetapi juga dalam pertemuan-pertemuan resmi.

[…]

Tidak bisa disangkal, derap pembangunan di Provinsi Papua dan Papua Barat sangat lamban. Ini dapat dengan mudah dilihat dari masih banyaknya sekolah tanpa kehadiran guru-guru, banyak kampung belum terlayani pelayanan kesehatan, serta penyampaian informasi penting terhambat, karena terisolasi gunung, lembah, dan rawa- rawa.

On his blog, Ronald uploaded an ilustration based on true events that says some youths in Papuan village use plastic to replace the scarce and expensive condoms.

Women are largely at risk

Poverty in many areas in Indonesia forced parents to trade their daughters for money. Prostitution is a risky industry that is publicly condemned but generate a healthy sum of income for many people and a fertile ground for HIV virus to grow and spread.

According to Dr. Nafsiah Mboi of the AIDS Prevention Committee, 9 to 12 million lives are at risk due to the spread of the HIV virus in Indonesia. The country also witnessed the jump in number of housewives and women infected by the incurable disease mostly because the risky sexual behavior of their partners.

The following is an interview video of Dr. Mboi:

Stopping the disease religiously?

According to the Ministry of Health, until September 2009, there are about 18,422 HIV/AIDS patients. While Indonesian AIDS Foundation (YAI) said that until March this year, the number of HIV/AIDS patients in Indonesia is reaching 23,632 patients, a jump from 22,262 in 2008.

The government implements the ABCD (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms, and Drug-free) program to stem HIV spread in the archipelagic country, but according to Kholda Naajiyah on Hizbut Tahrir website, the program is ineffective and making condoms available everywhere means endorsing acts of promiscuity.

[…] dengan kampanye kondomisasi misalnya, masyarakat seolah diajari untuk melakukan seks bebas karena sudah dijamin aman dari HIV/Aids asal memakai kondom.

Naajiyah said that  imposing fines and punishment are important:

[…]

Para pelaku yang terlibat dalam jaringan bisnis narkoba harus dihukum berat. Pecandu yang sudah tobat harus diawasi agar tidak kambuh lagi dan yang belum tobat diberi sanksi agar jera melakukan hal yang sama.

He also said that closing the red light districts could help stop the spead of disease:

Penularan HIV/Aids melalui hubungan seks bisa dicegah dengan menutup lokalisasi pelacuran yang selama ini menjadi lokasi berisiko tinggi terjadi perpindahan virus HIV. Para pelacur yang biasa beroperasi harus diberi sanksi tegas karena telah melakukan perzinaan yang melanggar tata susila di masyarakat.

The central government lack of political will is partly due to religious groups which see condom distribution as a symbol of moral regression.

Blogger Patung, elaborates:

In Medan, North Sumatra, the provincial government distributes free condoms to prostitutes in red light districts.

The parliamentary faction of the Justice Party/Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) however is not happy about it, with PKS spokesman Zulkarnain saying the distribution of, so far, 2,880 condoms was not a good way of dealing with HIV/AIDS, since contraception was intended to prevent pregnancy, not to stop spread of disease.

Zulkarnain hoped new governor Syamsul Arifin would stop the policy and instead focus on helping prostitutes to reform themselves and find other work.

In the capital Jakarta, condoms can be found easily at pharmacies, automatic vending machine and even 24-hours convenient stores, however a report [id] said that the use of condom is still low, about 1,3% of birth control users.

On Monday the government launched Condom Week as part of  national  HIV/AIDS prevention program.