Pirated VCDs, DVDs confiscated
JAKARTA: City Police conducted an operation to confiscate pirated video compact discs (VCD) and digital video discs (DVD) at Mega Kuningan ITC in South Jakarta and Mangga Dua Mall in Central Jakarta.
A total of 490 VCDs and 11,301 DVDs were seized from eight kiosks located at both malls during the operation last Friday.
City Police special crime director Sr. Comr. Edmond Ilyas said on Tuesday that the kiosks' owners would be charged with film copyright and criminal acts according to Article 44 of the law no. 12/1997 and Article 282 of the criminal code.
According to Edmond, the distributors could face a sentence of between one month and seven years of imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion (US$117,647).
He agreed that the factories which produced pirated VCDs and DVDs were also responsible and not just the distributors. -- JP
;JP;BBN; ANPAj..r.. Focus-pageant-contest-AbNon 36 candidates to go pageant final JP/8/Abang-none
36 candidates to go pageant final
JAKARTA: A total of 18 pairs of candidates will participate in the Abang None pageant final, slated for Aug. 8 at Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan, Central Jakarta.
The candidates were selected through preliminary contests in the city's five municipalities and the Thousand Islands regency.
Head of the City Tourism Agency Aurora Tambunan told the media on Monday that all contestants were currently quarantined at the Pencak Silat dormitory, East Jakarta, for further assessment.
Aurora said that the winning pair would receive cars as prizes and scholarships to undertake masters degrees in the UK.
She added that the finalists had been selected from around 1,400 pairs who had participated in the preliminary rounds. Each municipality and regency is represented by three pairs of candidates. -- JP
;JP;Kiky;ANTARA; ANPAj..r.. Focus-Bekasi-education JP/8/GREAT
Enrollment fee dispute in Bekasi
BEKASI: A non-governmental organization has said that local elementary and high schools in the mayoralty were able to impose illegally high enrollment fees because a lack of official monitoring.
The group blamed the Bekasi Education Agency and the City Council's Commission E for social affairs for failing to control enrollment fees in the mayoralty.
The head of the group Good Governance, Noor Fatah, said on Tuesday: "Commission E and the agency should have begun monitoring the situation days ago, prior to the new academic year, so schools would not have had the opportunity to impose high enrollment fees."
"Not all parents are able to spend millions of rupiah on enrollment fees," he said.
At some state-run elementary schools in Bekasi, the enrollment fee ranged from Rp 180,000 (US$21) to Rp 850,000. The fee is meant to go toward constructing classrooms, laboratories and libraries.
Commission E deputy chairman Syafrudin denied the accusations.
"We refuse to be accused of being lax in monitoring enrollment fees at some schools here," he said.
Last week, Commission E summoned the principals of several elementary and high schools, in response to increased protests by parents over the high enrollment fees. -- Antara