Press freedom in Indonesia improving: Watchdog<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia has made further progress in terms of press freedom
\nover the past 12 months, according to Reporters Without Borders'
\n2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index.<\/p>\n
According to the index, made public late last week, Indonesia
\nis ranked 102nd, out of 167 countries surveyed. The country was
\nranked 117th last year.<\/p>\n
The Paris-based watchdog said that there had been some
\nstriking improvements in terms of press freedom in Indonesia with
\nthe opening up of Aceh province to journalists following the
\nsigning of a peace accord by the government and the Free Aceh
\nMovement (GAM) rebel group in August.<\/p>\n
\"Despite occasional violence, the media works in good
\nconditions and online media are prolific,\" it said.<\/p>\n
Current developments at home, however, are not entirely
\nencouraging for the press corps here.<\/p>\n
Some media people have recently expressed concern about the
\nfuture of press freedom here, particularly with the government's
\nproposal of a new tougher Criminal Code, in which some of the
\narticles could restrict freedom of thought and expression,
\nincluding press freedom.<\/p>\n
Violent attacks against journalists have also remained a
\nconcern. The police, for instance, have been strongly criticized
\nfor failing to immediately respond to a case where a journalist
\nin North Sumatra had been attacked and kidnapped by mobs
\nallegedly working for an influential local politician. The
\njournalist had run a series of stories exposing irregularities in
\nthe implementation of the local election in North Sumatra's South
\nNias regency.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also banned foreign
\njournalists from entering conflict-prone areas, most notably
\nPapua province.<\/p>\n
Reporters Without Borders also saw improvement in Malaysia
\n(113th) as that country no longer is holding any journalists or
\ncyber-dissidents in prison.<\/p>\n
Singapore (140th) still has a very low ranking because the
\ngovernment keeps a tight grip on the media and uses tough laws to
\ncrack down on the few independent journalists.<\/p>\n
Killings of journalists in the Philippines (139th) increased,
\nalong with censorship, mainly by local officials. The watchdog
\nsaid that President Gloria Arroyo showed intolerance towards the
\nmedia, especially foreign, for exposing corruption. On Mindanao
\nisland, security forces were frequently involved in the murder or
\nobstruction of journalists, it added.<\/p>\n
North Korea, which remained dead last on list, along with
\nEritrea and Turkmenistan, were described as the world's \"black
\nholes\" for news where the privately owned media is not allowed
\nany freedom of expression, and quite simply does not exist.<\/p>\n
\"Journalists there simply relay government propaganda,\" it
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Some Western democracies slipped down the index as well. The
\nUnited States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of
\nthe imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and
\nlegal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources.
\nCanada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that
\nweakened the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists
\ninto \"court auxiliaries.\" France (30th) also slipped, largely
\nbecause of searches of media offices, interrogations of
\njournalists and introduction of new press offenses.<\/p>\n
At the top of the Index once again are northern European
\ncountries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the
\nNetherlands, where robust press freedom is firmly established.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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