Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara is urging the owners of news websites to register their sites with an Indonesian network domain to help the government monitor their content, following the recent blocking of 19 sites deemed to be promoting radicalism.

'We urge Indonesian news websites to use the .co.id extension instead of .com, so it can be registered in the Indonesian domain, making it easier for us to identify the content. There are more [Indonesian websites] that have .com extensions than .co.id,' Rudiantara said on Thursday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He promised to help facilitate the registration of news websites with the .co.id extension in the Indonesia Internet Domain Registry (Pandi).

The move follows an outcry against the recent blocking of several websites considered related to radicalism, as requested by National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).

To improve the transparency of similar decision in the future, the minister has established a panel consisting of public figures, including from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Nahdlatul Ulama executive council.

'The panel will obtain suggestions and considerations from several public figures so the process can be better and more transparent,' he added. (fsu)(++++)