Attacked daily greceives more threats
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra
The United States and media organizations here condemned on Friday an attack on the office of the Sinar Indonesia Baru (SIB) daily in North Sumatra, while at the same time gambling den workers staged a protest against the newspaper.
Such a criminal attack had no place in a free society and the U.S. strongly supported a free press in Indonesia, said Paul S. Berg, a United States Embassy official in Medan.
"Freedom of the press is a vital component of the democratic process that the United States government supports in Indonesia. True democracy exists only when the media can speak out without fear of intimidation," he said.
Berg said the police should arrest those responsible for Thursday's brutal attack, which injured six people and damaged SIB's office equipment.
"Our sympathy goes out to the wounded and their families," he told journalists in Medan.
The incident began when about 15 thugs, arriving in three cars, descended on the office building at 1 a.m. on Thursday and then broke into it.
The attackers, some carrying guns, later damaged much of the office equipment with metal and bamboo poles, witnesses said.
The violence may have been provoked by articles run by the newspaper on gambling.
In an apparent move to support the violent action, some 1,000 workers from togel (a form of gambling) operations demonstrated at the SIB office on Friday, warning the newspaper against running more articles on gambling.
They threatened to mobilize more people to storm the newspaper if their demands went unheeded.
The protesters accused the newspaper of being unfair in publishing news reports on gambling as the articles, they said, were only critical of togel.
According to them, certain editorial staff members were involved in a gambling game, Micky Mouse, but the newspaper largely ignored it.
"If (SIB) writes an article, it should not be discriminatory. Everything should be covered in it.
"We are extremely nauseated by those pretending to be clean, as there are certain people on SIB's editorial staff also involved in gambling. It's like a thief speaking out about a thief," protest coordinator Darmadi said.
The noisy protest ended peacefully amid a tight police guard.
In response to the rally, SIB advertising manager Tuti Panggabean said her office would study the protesters' demands for the newspaper to stop running gambling articles.
However, the newspaper had carried seven articles in its Thursday edition condemning the attack.
The Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI), the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and other media organizations also condemned the attack by the unidentified group.
North Sumatra PWI chairman Muchyan A.A. said the mob attack was a savage and cowardly act by immoral people without any reason and demanded that the perpetrators be detained soon.
The incident showed that the law was no longer respected and was targeted on all press workers, particularly those in North Sumatra, he added.
"Indonesian journalists should forge cooperation to fight any kind of terror related to their work that may criticize whatever is against the law," Muchyan said.
Medan Police chief Sr. Comr. Bagus Kurniawan said at least eight people were questioned over the attack and vowed to thoroughly investigate the case.
"We shall certainly arrest the terror perpetrators," he said.
Another high-profile attack on a media organization was made last year in Jakarta when the office of Tempo magazine was stormed and vandalized by two gangs, one linked to a well- connected businessman and another to a political party.