A French journalist who was recently deported after filming a rally in Jayapura, Papua, is questioning his expulsion by Indonesian authorities’.
Television producer Baudouin Koenig, who had been reporting on Indonesian democracy, experienced freedom of the press in Indonesia and was surprised that he was arrested for filming a demonstration, he wrote in an email Wednesday while in transit from Jayapura to Jakarta.
“It’s ironic. I have been accused of having an intention to give a bad image of the country by showing that people are allowed to protest for their ideas in a calm and peaceful atmosphere,” he said.
Koenig said that he was arrested in front of 50 journalists, photographers and cameramen.
He said he had Indonesian press card, a press visa valid for all parts of the country except Poso, Central Sulawesi and permission from the authorities to report on democracy in Indonesia.
“The same institutions cannot pretend today that they only accredited me to [make a] film on tourism and the beauty of Indonesia,” Koenig said.
He said he and a student filmed the national census in Papua and a recent dialogue with Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar.
“My only fault was to cross a demonstration on the way to the hotel. I stopped the car and I started to film.”
“I should have waited for my guide,” he added.
Immigration officials questioned the pair for six hours after their arrest for visa violations Tuesday.
Baudouin said he concluded his statement to immigration officials with “vive la démocratie” (long live democracy).
“I hope that the democratic principles of Indonesia will allow me to finish the huge (and also positive) portrait of Indonesia,” he wrote in the e-mail.