Kompas daily proceeds with legal process on assault case
Kompas daily proceeds with legal process on assault case
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
As part of the campaign to put an end to the long list of
assaults against the Indonesian media, Kompas daily vowed on
Thursday to proceed with the legal process against the police for
beating one of its reporters while reporting the Maspion worker
strike in Sidoarjo, East Java.
The daily's Deputy Managing Editor, Taufik H. Mihardja, said
on Thursday that Kompas would not be satisfied with an apology
from the police and somebody had to be legally punished for the
incident.
"We have reported the incident to Sidoarjo police and are
studying further possible legal steps for the assault," Taufik
told The Jakarta Post.
Journalist Wisnu Dewabrata was beaten up by officers from the
Sidoarjo police force, while covering a strike on Wednesday
involving thousands of Maspion workers.
As the strike heated up, the police started to chase down the
workers and a clash broke out, leaving at least five workers
injured.
Wisnu, who was among the crowd, was also hit by a police billy
club, and his press identity card and camera were taken away by
the officers.
Taufik said Wisnu only suffered minor injuries and continued
to work and report on the strike.
He asserted that it was not a matter of how serious the
injuries were, but the rights of the press to report certain
events safely and without threats from security officers.
"We do not want the case to be settled with an apologetic
statement, we want the perpetrators to be brought to justice for
the incident. These kinds of assaults should be stopped," he
said.
Assaults against the press are not something new in Indonesia,
and unfortunately during Megawati's administration, violent
attacks against the press and its freedom has increased.
Many have feared the country would suffer a setback in press
freedom, as aside from the increasing number of assaults, the
government has drafted regulations to curb the media.
Ati Nurbaiti, chairwoman of the Alliance of Independent
Journalists (AJI), said Wisnu's case followed another 58 recorded
cases of physical assaults on members of the press from May 3,
2001 (international press freedom day) to May 3 this year.
"If this goes on, we'll have to present the police force with
our annual 'Enemy of the Press' award," she told the Post.
She said that in some cases police had claimed ignorance of
the press laws and asked AJI to send them a copy of the document.
"It is inconceivable that a police chief does not know the
universal rule against assaulting neutral parties in a conflict
situation such as journalists and humanitarian workers, and that
such officers never instruct their subordinates on this matter,"
she remarked.
Separately, National Police Spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf
vowed that the police would follow up with the case and punish
the officers involved.
"The police never have the intention to block press freedom.
We fully understand that the press is our partner, but please be
patient as we are still trying to reform ourselves in respecting
the media," Saleh told the Post.