Award for jailed reporter

Award for jailed reporter

JAKARTA (JP): Ahmad Taufik, imprisoned former Tempo reporter,
is one of five journalists named for this year's Freedom Awards,
conferred by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists,
Reuters reported yesterday.

Ahmad is currently serving a jail term after the Jakarta
District Court found him guilty early this year of sowing hatred
against the government.

He is the chairman of the Alliance of Independence Journalists
(AJI), an organization founded by former Tempo journalists and
their supporters in the wake of the government's ban against of
the news magazine in June 1994. He was also editor of AJI's
bulletin Independen, which both the government and the court
found offensive.

Besides Ahmad, the award will be presented to Fred M'membe of
Zambia, Veronica Guerin of Ireland, Yvgeny Kiselyov of Russia
and Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin of Guatemala.

The committee, currently headed by Ted Turner, chairman of
Turner Broadcasting System, monitors abuses of press freedom.