New York-based CPJ asks RI to encourage press freedom
New York-based CPJ asks RI to encourage press freedom
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has been asked to revive its commitment to
press freedom following its decision to reject an Australian
journalist's application for renewal of his visa.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in
a letter to President Megawati Soekarnoputri dated March 18, said
the decision was effectively banning Lindsay Murdoch from working
as a correspondent in Jakarta.
"This is a clear attempt to punish Murdoch for writing stories
that criticize government policies," CPJ said in the letter
signed by its executive director Ann K. Cooper.
Murdoch, who works for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age,
said on Sunday he had been told that two articles in particular
led to the ban by an interdepartmental committee.
One was about how East Timorese children had been taken from
refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor and left in orphanages on
Java island. Another told how soldiers in a village in Aceh
province killed a four-month-old baby in May by pouring boiling
water over it.
"To the best of our knowledge, Indonesian authorities have not
denied that these incidents occurred," CPJ said in its letter to
Megawati urging her to reverse the decision.
"They should not be expelling a reporter for bringing such
abuses to light."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied the allegations
that it is discouraging press freedom and said that it, like
other countries, was under no obligation to explain the reason
for the issuance or non-issuance of a visa.
CPJ said that the refusal to grant Murdoch a visa undermined
Indonesia's commitment to press freedom, which regained ground in
the country following the fall of the three-decade-long
authoritarian regime under Soeharto in May 1998.
"Following Soeharto's ouster in 1998, one of the most sweeping
and positive changes in Indonesia was the establishment of a free
press," CPJ said.
The international organization also asked Megawati to disband
any government committee that seeks to censor or judge the work
of journalists in Indonesia.
Also protesting the ban was the Alliance of Independent
Journalists (AJI), who described the government move as "an
obvious violation of and threat to press freedom".
AJI said the incident would enforce self-censorship among
foreign and local journalists, which would only taint the image
of Megawati's government.
"What the present government is doing now is a repetition of
the policy of the Soeharto government, which often banned
critical foreign media from entering the country," AJI said in a
statement signed by its chairwoman Ati Nurbaiti and secretary-
general Solahudin,
State Minister for Information and Communication Syamsul
Mu'arif said he had not been informed about the foreign
ministry's refusal to renew Murdoch's working visa.
"I will clarify this matter during the coming Cabinet meeting
(on Thursday). But I hope what has happened in Murdoch's case
does not represent the government's attempt to control the
media," he said on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of
Representatives on Tuesday.
He said he was considering establishing a clearing house in
his office to tackle specific matters, including the action taken
against Murdoch.