The Press Council and AJI say violence against journalists does not get enough attention from the press and the government, with cases — some led to death — closed without trial.
The statement came during the commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the muzzling of Tempo magazine, Editor and Detik by the New Order the regime, on Tuesday, organized by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Press Council.
With the existing press law and climate of democracy, the government can no longer shut down critical media. But the safety of journalists is another story, with the AJI reporting 651 abuses of journalists over the last 10 years.
“The abuse of journalists is increasing repeatedly with almost zero resolved cases,” AJI advocacy coordinator Margiyono said.
“Among 651 cases, only five were taken to the police with one case resolved. As of today, we only have one success story: The murder of Radar Bali Journalist Gede Agung. The suspects were sentenced to prison,” he said in a discussion in Jakarta.
He said his alliance received reports from journalists about threats ranging from intimidation in the workplace, assault, even murder.
Last year the AJI recorded 44 cases while the first semester of this year saw 23.
A few months ago, four journalists were beaten by several police officers in Surabaya, East Java, the AJI recorded. Reporter Lukman Rozaq of Trans7, Septa Rudianto of El-Shinta radio, Eko Oscar Nugroho of New Tang Dynasty Television and Joko Hermanto of TVRI were covering a march of Falun Gong, a Chinese philosophy movement, when the police officers attacked them.
Last year also saw several unresolved murders of journalists, the AJI said. Journalist Ardiansyah Matra’is of Merauke TV, who wrote a series of alleged illegal logging activities by some military officers in Papua, was found dead floating in a river on July 30. He received several threats before being killed, the media reported.
Ridwan Salamun, a Sun TV correspondent, was stabbed in the back while covering a clash between villagers in Banda Eli and Fiditan in Tual, Maluku, on Aug. 21.
Three suspects were taken to trial but set free due to lack of evidence.
Pelangi weekly magazine chief editor, Alfrets Mirulewan, was found dead floating in the coast of Maluku, on Dec. 16. The investigation is still pending. He was investigating fuel hoarding on Kisar Island, which spiked the price of fuel on the island.
The combination of lax public attention and lack of political concern is a prominent issue in the growing number of abused journalists.
“The fact that most cases are unresolved leads me to question, what happens here? It seems like the media community itself does not care much about the issue,” secretary of the Judicial Mafia Taskforce Denny Indrayana said.
He said the media talked a lot about malpractice in justice and politics rather than concern for their own code of ethics and journalists’ failure to uphold them. “If the media paid attention more to the abuse of journalists, the condition may be different,” he said.
Margiyono said there was not enough binding among media organizations on countering the violence. “In reality, the media doesn’t care that much about journalists who don’t work for them,” he said.
The National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said some of his officers in the regions did not take the issue seriously. “I have received several reports that police officers don’t do their job,” he said.
He suggests the AJI and Press Council sign an agreement with the police on the issue.