Indonesia Frees ‘Playboy’ Editor

Posted on Jun 23, 2011

AP / Irwin Fedriansyah

We’ve been tracking the fate of Erwin Arnada since 2006, when the editor launched a PG version of Playboy in the world’s most populous Muslim country. After all these years, the Indonesian high court has invalidated the indecency charges on which Arnada was convicted. It’s a big day for swimsuits in Bali.

Arnada is on Twitter, as is his lawyer. Here are some machine-translated tweets from the latter (we couldn’t get Arnada’s tweets translated and our Indonesian is rusty):

“Erwin Arnada will be free. Who wins is the freedom of the press. Winning is common sense.”

“Kudos to the Supreme Court who consistently defended the freedom of the press, off-kill idealism and creativity of the press.”

“Truth and justice are not to be subject to the loud voices who are not necessarily empty. Justice is a victory of common sense.”

—PZS

BBC:

Todung Mulya Lubis [Arnada’s lawyer] told BBC Indonesian that Mr Erwin was now a free man.

“We ourselves have not received a copy of its decision, but the Supreme Court said the verdict had been issued and an application is granted,” he said.

The magazine contained no nudity and critics argued the trial highlighted the growing power of Islamist groups.

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