The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) says that the nation's progress on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) does not reflect conditions in Indonesia.
The nation jumped seven places to 139th in the report issued by RWB, a France-based international NGO supporting the press freedom, that was released on World Press Freedom Day on Friday.
The report, which was limited to an evaluation of media freedom, surveyed conditions between December 2011 and November 2012.
According to Umar Idris, the chairman of AJI Jakarta, the situation in Indonesia had grown worse in the reporting period, with the number of cases of violence directed at journalists rising from 96 in 2011 to 100 in 2012.
Umar attributed RMB's improved appraisal to the kidnappings of five local journalists in Papua in 2011. There were no kidnappings of journalists in 2012, leading the group to improve its appraisal of the nation, he added.
However, Umar said that AJI has no records to support the Papuan kidnappings and that the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation confirmed that there were no such kidnappings in 2011. "The RWB report about that incident in Papua was not valid. I don't know where they got that report," Nawawi from LBH Jakarta said.
Meanwhile, Freedom House, an independent watchdog, said that the press situation in Papua was a matter of great concern, calling on the government to end a culture of impunity that has allowed violence to escalate.
However, Umar said that violence against journalists had been more frequent in the first quarter of 2013.