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)