Press freedom in Indonesia improving: Watchdog

Press freedom in Indonesia improving: Watchdog

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has made further progress in terms of press freedom
over the past 12 months, according to Reporters Without Borders'
2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index.

According to the index, made public late last week, Indonesia
is ranked 102nd, out of 167 countries surveyed. The country was
ranked 117th last year.

The Paris-based watchdog said that there had been some
striking improvements in terms of press freedom in Indonesia with
the opening up of Aceh province to journalists following the
signing of a peace accord by the government and the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) rebel group in August.

"Despite occasional violence, the media works in good
conditions and online media are prolific," it said.

Current developments at home, however, are not entirely
encouraging for the press corps here.

Some media people have recently expressed concern about the
future of press freedom here, particularly with the government's
proposal of a new tougher Criminal Code, in which some of the
articles could restrict freedom of thought and expression,
including press freedom.

Violent attacks against journalists have also remained a
concern. The police, for instance, have been strongly criticized
for failing to immediately respond to a case where a journalist
in North Sumatra had been attacked and kidnapped by mobs
allegedly working for an influential local politician. The
journalist had run a series of stories exposing irregularities in
the implementation of the local election in North Sumatra's South
Nias regency.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also banned foreign
journalists from entering conflict-prone areas, most notably
Papua province.

Reporters Without Borders also saw improvement in Malaysia
(113th) as that country no longer is holding any journalists or
cyber-dissidents in prison.

Singapore (140th) still has a very low ranking because the
government keeps a tight grip on the media and uses tough laws to
crack down on the few independent journalists.

Killings of journalists in the Philippines (139th) increased,
along with censorship, mainly by local officials. The watchdog
said that President Gloria Arroyo showed intolerance towards the
media, especially foreign, for exposing corruption. On Mindanao
island, security forces were frequently involved in the murder or
obstruction of journalists, it added.

North Korea, which remained dead last on list, along with
Eritrea and Turkmenistan, were described as the world's "black
holes" for news where the privately owned media is not allowed
any freedom of expression, and quite simply does not exist.

"Journalists there simply relay government propaganda," it
said.

Some Western democracies slipped down the index as well. The
United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of
the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and
legal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources.
Canada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that
weakened the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists
into "court auxiliaries." France (30th) also slipped, largely
because of searches of media offices, interrogations of
journalists and introduction of new press offenses.

At the top of the Index once again are northern European
countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the
Netherlands, where robust press freedom is firmly established.