National Library vows to implement 1990 law
National Library vows to implement 1990 law
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Book publishers and visual and audio recording
companies be warned. If you have not handed in copies of every
work you have published to the National Library, you are liable
to six months imprisonment and/or a Rp 5 million ($2,200) fine.
An official at the National Library said yesterday that the
government feels it's time to fully enforce Law No. 4/1990 on
publications and audio and visual recordings.
A special team, involving the police, has been established to
enforce the law. The team will begin its campaign next month in
six provinces -- Bali, East Java, Jakarta, North Sumatra, West
Java and Yogyakarta -- Ediyami Bondan Andoko, head of the
National Library's department for preservation and deposits, told
The Jakarta Post yesterday.
"We have been disseminating the law for more than five years.
The campaign to enforce the law is expected to push publishers
and importers, and recording companies, to give us their work,"
she said.
Since the law was passed in 1990, the National Library has
only received 33,000 books and magazines, and about 10,000
recordings from publishers and music producers.
Ediyami said most of the books submitted were priced below Rp
50,000.
The law stipulates that book publishers and recording
companies submit at least two copies of each work they issue: One
copy to the National Library and one copy to local libraries run
by the provincial administrations.
The law covers fiction and non-fiction books, reference books,
art books, scientific books, magazines, newspapers, maps,
brochures, and any other publications the National Library
decides are intended for public consumption.
Recordings include films, audio cassettes, video cassettes,
laser discs, records, diskettes and other recording materials
intended for public consumption. Importers who bring in more than
10 copies of books and recorded material about Indonesia are also
subject to the law.
Ediyami said the law enforcement campaign will be limited to
the six provinces in which the most publishers, importers and
recording companies are located. "Other provinces will have to
wait until we've seen the result of this blitz," Ediyami added.
She said her office has conducted various campaigns over the
past five years to inform publishers and recording companies of
their obligations under the law. "There are those who already
know, but ignore the law anyway," she said.
The Indonesian Association of Recording Industries welcomed
the campaign yesterday.
"The law was introduced in the interest of the public. Its
enforcement and sanctions are necessary," association chairman
Dimas Wahab told the Post.
He said law enforcement agencies should also be aware of the
law, underlining that the association's 90 members have been
fully briefed about the legislation.
The Association of Indonesian Book Publishers (IKAPI) said all
its 400 members have complied with the law. "We support the
campaign. We know the benefit the law has for young people,"
IKAPI chairman Rozali Usman told the Post by phone.
Rozali said the campaign should also be targeted at government
publishing houses because "from what I've heard, it is them that
have not been submitting copies of their work."
"Are they going to be punished too?" he asked. (31)