Term black campaign or black campaigns often emerge when elections are approaching. Political parties begin to compete to win certain candidate pairs (candidates). They use various methods to attract public attention and sympathy.

Then, what exactly is black campaign and what is the legal perspective on this phenomenon? See the full description below!

Definition Black Campaign

Referring to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), black campaign is a campaign carried out by denigrating political opponents.

Black campaign (black campaign) is also defined as a campaign that leads to insults, spreading news hoaxes, slander, and everything that aims to bring down certain candidates.

A similar understanding is also written in Article 69 letter c of Law Number 8 of 2015 which implies the definition of a black campaign, namely acts of inciting, slandering, pitting political parties, individuals, and/or community groups against each other.

Black Campaign in Indonesia

Quoted from the official website of the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, the activity of black campaign was initially carried out by distributing or disseminating news through various print media, such as photocopies of articles, pamphlets, and other negative information related to the opposing party. This is done by the success team or sympathizers of legislative and executive candidates.

The phenomenon of black campaign in Indonesia is still rife because of the difficulty in taking action against this behavior. This problem is partly motivated by the rules in Law Number 8 of 2012 concerning General Elections, namely Article 249 paragraph (4) which states that campaign violations can be acted upon if there is a report or complaint to Bawaslu.

Meanwhile, the very short statute of limitations, which is only 7 (seven) days from the discovery of the election violation, also makes the activity of black campaign difficult to take action on. This is because the case is usually only reported to Bawaslu after the statute of limitations has passed.

Another cause of the rampant black campaign is the use of electronic media and online media as campaign tools that have not been fully regulated and firmly by the Law. Through this media, everyone is free to spread photos, videos, and various types of content to bring down political opponents.

Campaign activities through electronic media and social media are considered more cost-effective and effective in influencing people's mindsets. Considering that most of the Indonesian population has accessed social media in their daily lives. In fact, it is not uncommon for them to be reluctant to explore the truth of information and swallow raw what they see and read.

Juridically, the activity of black campaign is not explicitly regulated in the Law. However, Article 280 paragraph (1) of the Election Law regulates what shall not be conducted in a campaign, one of which is the prohibition black campaign.

The content of the article affirms that implementers, participants, and election campaign teams are prohibited from:

  1. Questioning the state ideology of Pancasila, the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and the form of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
  2. Conducting activities that endanger the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
  3. Insulting a person, religion, ethnicity, race, group, candidate, and/or other election participants.
  4. Inciting and pitting individuals or communities against each other.
  5. Disrupting public order.
  6. Threatening to commit violence or advocating the use of violence against a person, a group of community members, and/or other election participants.
  7. Damaging and/or removing campaign props of election participants.
  8. Using government facilities, places of worship, and educational institutions.
  9. Carrying or using images and/or attributes other than the images and/or attributes of the election participant in question.
  10. Promising or giving money or other materials to election campaign participants.

Sanctions for Perpetrators Black Campaign

As mentioned in Article 512 of Law 7/2017 that every implementer, participant, and/or campaign team who intentionally commits a violation as written in Article 280 paragraph (1), has the potential to be sentenced to a maximum imprisonment of 2 (two) years and a maximum fine of Rp24,000,000.00 (twenty-four million rupiah).

Tips to Avoid Black Campaign

Although activities black campaign often occur in Indonesia, there are several tips that we can do to avoid the influence of black campaigns, namely:

1. Examining Media Reputation

The first thing that can be done to prevent black campaigns is to pay attention to the reputation of a media outlet. We must choose information or news that comes from media with clear credibility.

2. Seeing the Opponent's Point of View

Before drawing conclusions, we need to consider the arguments from both sides, so that we can make decisions from a neutral point of view.

3. Verifying News

After reading or seeing a piece of news, we should first verify the truth of the information.

4. Not Spreading Hoaxes

If we do not yet know the truth of a piece of news, it is best not to share the information with the wider public to avoid spreading hoaxes.

That is the description of black campaign in elections and the legal perspective on the phenomenon. Get information about other laws by visiting literasihukum.com!