Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the Kutai Kartanegara district government to disclose “a vast trove of licensing data,” according to a MongaBay report on the case
“The case had originated in the country’s Public Information Commission (KIP), which is increasingly being used by civil society to obtain data related to the extractive, agribusiness and forestry sectors,” according to the article.
The NGO coalition, the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), filed the case.
The documents, expected to be released soon, include concession maps and information about the owners and shareholders of mining companies in Kutai Kartanegara, the district with more coal mines than any other. “Jatam expects the data will shed new light on nepotism and corruption in the licensing process, and on who might be operating outside their concession boundaries or in a protected area,” according to the article.
“It will be very useful for investigating environmental and mining crimes,” Merah Johansyah, the head of Jatam’s central committee, told Mongabay. He added that the coalition would call on the police to obtain the licensing data by force if it stayed secret for much longer.
The government had argued that the information could be misused.
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