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Date:
March 9, 2020

Cultural Landscape: Indonesia

Spread across thousands of islands bustling with beautiful flora and fauna, Indonesia is the world’s largest island country. Over the centuries, its people have welcomed several cultures they came across through trade and commerce. As a result, we now have a melting pot of cultures in Indonesia to study and appreciate.

Though officially a secular nation, Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, with about 87 percent of Indonesians following Islam. Other religions that coexist peacefully include Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

The people of Indonesia are traditional and prefer to follow a more conservative approach to life. Indonesian culture influences age ratings for digital music, film and television in myriad ways.

Sexual Material in Music

Sex and sexuality are topics that Indonesians do not openly discuss. In fact, transgressions can carry heavy consequences. Music that contains sexual lyrics is regulated by the broadcasting authority. In early 2019, the West Java provincial broadcast commission listed 85 songs labelled ‘adult’ which could only be aired between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Popular English language songs, including Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like,” and Ariana Grande’s “Love Me Harder,” were considered vulgar and negative .

Decency and Decorum

Indonesians prefer to dress modestly in public. The government has in recent years grown more conservative with regards to acceptable clothing choices, particularly for women. It came as less of a surprise when an advertisement for the South Korean female pop group Blackpink was banned because its members dressed in miniskirts. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission ordered nearly a dozen domestic TV stations to pull the commercial, citing indecency .

Indonesia’s decency filter is applicable to cartoons and works of animation as well. In 2017, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (IBC) issued a warning letter about a kissing scene in the cartoon series “Shaun The Sheep.” The authority pointed out that the show violated Article 14 on child protection and Article 16 on the limitation of sexual content in the Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Broadcasting Standards. “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Doraemon” also drew attention from the IBC as each had a female character sporting swimwear in one or more episodes. The images of these characters in swimwear were subsequently blurred out.

Religious Matters:

As Islam is the predominant religion practiced in Indonesia, authorities protect religious sentiments and seek to minimize or eliminate potentially upsetting material. One example is the Hollywood movie “Noah” starring Russell Crowe. The 2014 film was banned by the Indonesian Film Censorship Board, stating that the story contradicted Quran teachings and may mislead people .

The current trend in Indonesia continues toward a conservative approach. Government authorities closely monitor the Media and Entertainment industry to ensure the sensibilities of the Indonesian people are not offended.

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