Police call for public support in crackdown of LDs

JAKARTA (JP): Overwhelmed, the police called on the public yesterday to support their crackdown on illegal laser discs widely available for rent and sale in every corner of the city.

"Police operations, without support from the public and related agencies, will be useless and ridiculed as mere occasional surprises by the owners," head of the city police's economic crime section, Lt. Col. Aryanto Sutadi told reporters yesterday.

According to the officer, police still uncover a lot of uncensored pornographic laser discs and discs imported illegally.

"We cannot solve all these problems without the support of related agencies. The inflow of laser discs should be closely supervised, such as putting tax stickers on them as required by law," he said.

Today, Aryanto said, owners of rental shops in the city still attach no official stickers on most of their discs as required by an information ministerial decree issued last year, which requires that all video cassettes and discs should be approved by the Film Censorship Institute.

Recordings that have been accepted will bear stickers from the board, while those that have not been checked by the board are considered illegal.

"I know that Film Censorship Institute officials have inspected a number of film titles but why are there still hundreds of laser discs on shop counters with no stickers on them?" Aryanto asked.

He also said that police have been informed about the circulation of many pornographic laser discs in the city but doubted whether the operation could stop the illegal business.

"In our opinion, one of the most effective ways to stop the flow of pornographic laser discs from overseas is to carry out strict control over the items at the airports and seaports," Aryanto said.

Operations conducted after the discs are already in shops are not only difficult, but also waste a lot of time and money, he added.

In early May, Aryanto and his personnel confiscated 1,755 laser discs from seven rental shops in the city.

Aryanto cited three reasons for confiscation: the absence of stickers, discs of illegal copies of films which are still on at movie theaters and pornographic content.

The crackdown on the uncensored laser discs was carried out in the wake of the April 28 deadline to have discs censored by Film Censorship Institute.

A total of 13 shop owners were questioned during the May raids in Glodok Plaza, Lokasari, Citraland, Tanjung Duren, Rawamangun, Kelapa Gading and Blok M.

There has yet to be any announcement from Aryanto's office on whether the 13 shop owners questioned will be brought to court.

A 1992 law on films states that people found guilty of possessing or circulating uncensored laser discs will face a maximum of five years imprisonment or be fined Rp 50 million ($22,350).

In a response to the minister's decree, many owners of laser disc shops doubt if the Film Censorship Institute is able to censor discs.

"It's not easy and I doubt whether the Film Censorship Institute is able to do it like they cut video cassettes," an executive of a rental shop told The Jakarta Post at that time.

"For us, the decree simply means a total ban on laser discs in this country," he said.

Aryanto said that there two alternatives for the Film Censorship Institute: to reject or accept the content of discs. He added that a film producer can give the original copies to the Film Censorship Institute before distributing their films here.

"So, the films can be officially distributed for the Indonesian market," he said. "By doing so, they can run their business here without problems."

Laser disc rental shops and disc owners can obtain legalization stickers at a rate of Rp 20,000 for new films and Rp 5,000 for old ones. (bsr)