Police criticized over press abuse

Police criticized over press abuse

JAKARTA: The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has
sent a letter to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar urging
him to call a halt to abuses committed by the police against the
press.

In its letter dated Jan. 24, the AJI urged the police to
comply with the 1999 Press Law that upholds the freedom of the
press and to take punitive measures against those police
personnel who violated the law.

The protest followed three cases of abuse by police officers
against working journalists recently, the first cases of the
year.

The first case took place on Jan. 3 when riot police beat two
journalists from the Metro Bandung daily with their rifle butts
as security forces attempted to quell a communal clash in
Banjaran subdistrict in Bandung.

On Jan. 8, a reporter from the Suara Andika radio station in
Kediri, East Java, was assaulted by two traffic police officers
while covering a log theft case in Kandangan subdistrict.

The latest case occurred on Jan. 23, when police raided the
Waspada daily's offices and beat a reporter from its sister paper
Berita Sore as they searched for a group of men who had allegedly
sparked of a brawl. -- JP