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