Indonesian Vlogger Faces Trial for Mocking National Airline

New Delhi (Sputnik): A video blogger in Indonesia is likely to face a court trial for allegedly violating the country's strict electronic transactions law while sharing a handwritten menu of national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia.
Sputnik

Police have started the questioning process following the national carrier being mocked by public across the globe as it distributed a handwritten menu in Business Class, which was later posted by travel vlogger Rius Vernandes online.

The vlogger has appealed for support and promised not to violate country's law in future.

“I hope you can help share and support me through this problem because I don’t want to see that in the future, whenever we review something as is, whenever we give constructive criticism, we can be criminalised", he wrote while sharing police notice on Instagram.

Soon after the mocking, the airline had issued an internal circular, to restrict clicking pictures or filming onboard flights citing the need to "respect the privacy of other passengers and flight crew on duty".

Garuda Indonesia circulated an internal memo banning the practice on 14 July, writing: “It is not permissible to document activities on the plane either in the form of photos or videos by the cabin crew or passengers".

The airline’s officials, however, emphasised the circular is yet to be finalised while maintaining that the circular is based on "reports, suggestions and inputs from customers / passengers who feel uncomfortable".

Later, following the public wrath, the airline backtracked from the internal circular, saying it has urged passengers to respect the privacy of fellow travellers and crew on duty. The airline insisted that passengers can still take selfies as long as it doesn’t causes discomfort to or harm other passengers.

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