WWE has issued the following statement on their official website responding to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission’s attempt to ban SmackDown:
WWE first learned on Thanksgiving Day of sketchy and incomplete information that a father of a child in Indonesia was attempting to blame WWE’s SmackDown program for the death of his child. Today, the chief of the Detective Bureau charged with investigating the highly suspicious nature of the child’s death specifically stated in the media that the accusations of the family could not be taken at face value and that there is no reason to believe the death of this child had anything to do with watching wrestling.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that false allegations of this type have been used to deflect attention away from those directly responsible for the death of a child, and WWE urges caution in making such unsubstantiated, and now repudiated, statements, especially in light of the ongoing police investigation into the actual and true circumstances of this childâs death while in the custody of others.
The police noted an autopsy was forbidden by the childâs family for religious reasons. As a result the police have indicated in the media that because there is no permission to conduct the autopsy, they are currently asking for the childâs medical records from the hospital.
Although the death of any child is a tragedy, WWE is confident that the investigative conclusions will be that the death of this child had nothing to do with WWE programming.
âWe are committed to working with the appropriate parties in Indonesia to address any issues, while still allowing Indonesian viewers the choice to watch WWE programming,â said Gary Davis, Vice President of WWE.
