Ridwan Salamun, a cameraman working for SUN TV, was hacked to death in Tual, in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku, on August 21 by a group of villagers who did not welcome his attempt to cover a clash with residents of a neighbouring village, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported.
“A thorough investigation is urgently needed so that those responsible for this murder can be arrested,” RSF said a statement. “To ensure the investigation is carried out properly, the provincial authorities must dispatch additional policemen because, according to several local sources, policemen at the scene did not try to save Salamun or arrest those who attacked him.”
The news website Kompas.com quoted the head of SUN TV, Indonesia's leading television network, as saying that Salamun's assailants struck him on the neck and back with machetes and that he died from his injuries as he was being taken to a hospital.
Only recently hired by SUN TV, Salamun had been trying to cover a clash between rival groups from the villages Banda Eli and Mangun.
Two other Indonesian journalists have died in recent weeks in circumstance that have not yet been clarified. They were Merauke TV investigative journalist Ardiansyah Matra'is and Muhammad Syaifullah, the Borneo bureau chief of Kompas.
