Jakarta, May 10 -- Head of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Hasan Nasbi has advised counselling for a female university student arrested recently for uploading a meme featuring President Prabowo Subianto and the seventh president Joko Widodo.

"From the government's perspective, this young person deserves to be guided through counselling," he said on Saturday.

The student is quite young and was perhaps too enthusiastic about conveying criticism, he added.

In the context of democracy, expressions of criticism should be responded to with understanding and guidance, not punishment.

However, handling any legal violation is within the authority of the law enforcement agencies, Nasbi said.

"If the protest violates the law, we ha...