East Timor another test of press freedom

By Dwi Atmanta

DILI, East Timor (JP): Indonesia's press has been breathing fresh air for the past year, but violence and terror targeting journalists covering the Aug. 30 landmark vote on this province's future highlights the lack of protection for media workers.

Violence against journalists took its toll with the shooting of Kompas daily correspondent Kornelius Kewa Ama Khayam and Reuters photographer Bea Wiharta during a clash between supporters of independence and autonomy here on Thursday.

The Association of Independent Journalists (AJI) also reported on Friday at least 10 cases of intimidation, and scores of incidents of harassment and attacks on both local and foreign journalists by prointegration or proindependence groups here over the past month.

"Every journalist is prone to violence, and not only in Indonesia, particularly where chaos prevails. But what makes us different from our counterparts in democratic countries is that our repeated demands for protection from security authorities go unheeded," AJI's head of advocacy affairs Ezki Suyanto said.

Ezki, who works for the Voice of Human Rights radio station, was one of the journalists threatened by armed militiamen during Thursday's commotion. A TVRI state television cameraman was chased by a sword-waving man. All this happened before the eyes of policemen.

"The fall of Soeharto's New Order regime has changed nothing for the Indonesian press except for its greater opportunity to express its freedom," Ezki said.

The new face of the press here has allowed the uncovering of, among other things, the banking scandal linked to the presidential race and the government's half-hearted investigation into former president Soeharto's alleged corruption and power abuses. Even the press feels free to criticize, if not ridicule, the incumbent president -- number one taboo under the New Order.

Ezki said the latest violence against journalists proved the lack of appreciation for the journalistic profession.

"It does not necessarily have anything to do with the education level, because (the violence) has been taking place everywhere since a long time ago," she said.

Bea raised the same concern about the lack of protection, but he vowed to stick to the profession he has nurtured for six years.

"Of course I don't want to risk my life, but being a journalist gives me some pride. I have no regrets for what has happened to me," he said.

A stray bullet passed through his thigh when he was escaping the commotion.

"I thought I was already safe and quite far away from the place where the clash broke out. I didn't even know that I was shot as I kept running, before some residents told me of the bleeding," he recalled.

He does not know who shot him, but believes it was a bullet from a modern weapon. "A home-made weapon cannot hit that long- range a target," he surmised.

He rested at a nearby nunnery, where he saw six other people wounded from gunshots. All victims were admitted to the Motael polyclinic.

"My wife was crying when I told her. My four-year-old son also asked me if I was shot, but the way it raised his curiosity consoled me," he said.

He said he should not have been shot if he did not violate his own "standard procedure" he has applied for years. "I used to leave a troubled spot as soon as I got a good picture. But I was too greedy that time," he said.

Precautions were taken by Kornelius, although they could not spare him from a bullet that grazed his leg. But his bullet-proof vest saved him as five bullets struck his body. He also suffered from beatings, albeit not serious.

He left the town early on Friday for Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara along with his wife.

"He needs to recover from the trauma. I don't know for how long," his colleague, Rien Kuntari, said.

Ezki said Indonesian journalists did not have standardized self-protection procedures. "But experience tells us that it's better for journalists covering a clash to always stick together and stay behind security personnel," she said.

Thursday's clash augurs widespread violence in the post-ballot period, according to Ezki, who also coordinates the Safety Office for Media in East Timor (SOMET), a mission jointly organized by AJI and the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

The mission, the first ever to operate in the country, provides media workers with facilities and accommodation during an emergency, including evacuation arrangements when a widespread conflict breaks out.

In Jakarta, Minister of Information Muhammad Yunus expressed anger at the incident involving journalists.

"I demand a probe into the case. Do not let it be," he said during a meeting with legislators on the draft law on the press.

The minister was an Army captain in Balibo regency when five foreign journalists were killed there in 1975.

"With the presence of reporters, all parties in East Timor should be thankful, instead of abusing them," he said.

He added such violence could have occurred because of "people's disappointment with unbalanced reporting in favor of anti-integration groups".