'Kompas' enraged by 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.