Indonesia’s most populous province has set restrictions on when more than 80 English language songs can be broadcast. The West Java provincial broadcast commission identified 85 songs its members consider “adult” because of their offensive language. It said that local radio and television stations can only play such music between 10 at night and 3 in the morning. The songs include Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, Ariana Grande’s Love Me Harder and That’s What I Like by Bruno Mars. Indonesia is the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country. It has seen a rise in restrictions on subjects or behavior considered pornographic. The country is officially secular, meaning there is no state religion. But local lawmakers sometimes pass laws based on sharia or Islamic law. Broadcast programs are barred from having songs and/or video that show or contain “obscenities, sex...and drugs,” said Neneng Athiatul Faiziyah, a member of the commission.
