ARCHIVES: Indonesia
An Indonesian search team on July 30 recovered the body of reporter Ardiansyah Matra’is in a river in the small town of Merauke, on the southern tip of Papua province, according to news reports and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AIJ). Matra’is, who had been missing for two days, worked as a stringer for the national television broadcaster Anteve, before joining local broadcaster Merauke TV. At least four local journalists, including Matra’is, had received threatening text messages... MORE
Muhammad Syaifullah, the Borneo bureau chief of the leading Indonesian daily Kompas , was found dead Tuesday in his home in Balikpapan, on the island of Borneo, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The cause of death is not yet known. The police said that his body was found in front of a TV set, that there was froth around his mouth and that the muscles of his face were contracted. Syaifullah’s body was found by worried colleagues who went to his home Tuesday morning because his family... MORE
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the successful mediation of a dispute between Indonesia's police forces and Tempo magazine by the country's Press Council. The June 28 issue of Tempo featured an illustration showing a uniformed policeman with piggy banks on its cover, for the story "Fat Bank Accounts of Police Officers", on alleged suspicious bank accounts held by several high-ranking police officers. The caricature prompted Indonesia's police headquarters to file... MORE
An Indonesian newspaper reporter in the western province of Aceh has had to go into hiding after being threatened and beaten by an army officer over a report about illegal logging, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The reporter, who just uses the name Ahmadi, works for the local daily Harian Aceh. “It is unacceptable just days after World Environment Day on June 5 that a journalist is being treated like this for writing about deforestation,” Paris-based RSF said. “The Indonesian... MORE
The Indonesian governmen has decided to deport Raimondo Bultrini, a reporter with Italy’s weekly L’Espresso , and Kumkum Dasgupta, an assistant editor with India’s Hindustan Times , for lacking accreditation, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The two reporters were arrested and interrogated for several hours by police on Tuesday and later handed over to immigration authorities in Riau province in the center of Sumatra, according to local news reports. They... MORE
Indonesia's Supreme Court reversed its own 2007 ruling on April 16, 2009, and dismissed a $106 million case against the Hong Kong-based Time Warner publication that had been filed by the country's late President Suharto and continued by his heirs, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The decision marked the end of a lawsuit launched shortly before Suharto's death in 1999, a few months after the magazine's May 1999 cover story that reported on the alleged corruption of the... MORE
The Indonesian government should launch an immediate investigation into the death of journalist Anak Agung Prabangsa, a reporter with the Indonesian-language Radar Bali daily, the Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded. On Monday, Prabangsa's body was found floating off the coast of Bali island's Bias Tugel beach near Padangbai Bay. The 41-year-old journalist was first reported missing on February 12 by his family and Radar Bali staff members, the day after he left the newspaper's... MORE
A freedom of expression advocate has been charged with libel and defamation by the South Sulawesi Regional Police Office in Indonesia, the Jakarta-based Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) has reported. The chief of the South Sulawesi Regional Police Office, Police Inspector General Sisno Adiwinoto, accused Upi Asmaradana, the coordinator of the Coalition of Journalists against Criminalisation of the Press, of libel and defamation. Libel and defamation carry a prison term in Indonesia. Upi was... MORE
On the eve of Indonesia's Independence Day, the country's Constitutional Court has dealt a serious blow to Indonesia's press freedom with a decision upholding the constitutionality of criminal defamation, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) has said. The August 15 court decision effectively dismisses a petition filed by journalist Risang Bima Wijaya and columnist Bersihar Lubis, who were jailed for insulting a chief editor and the Attorney General's Office. Supported by the Jakarta-based... MORE
Deported US freelance journalist William Nessen left Aceh province for Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, according to Indonesian news agency Antara. Nessen who was barred from entering the province for having allegedly violated immigration rules left the Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport at Blang Bintang for the Malaysian capital at 02.37 p.m. by a chartered plane, an Antara journalist observed. Nessen arrived in Aceh on Sunday by an Air Asia flight. He came to Aceh at the invitation of Governor Irwandi... MORE
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