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Ministers criticized over statements against media freedom in Papua

A Human Rights Watch activist urged on Thursday President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to distance himself from two ministers’ statements against freedom of the press in Papua, and immediately issue an explicit written directive spelling out his policy on Papua’s media freedom

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Thu, May 28, 2015

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Ministers criticized over statements against media freedom in Papua

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Human Rights Watch activist urged on Thursday President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to distance himself from two ministers'€™ statements against freedom of the press in Papua, and immediately issue an explicit written directive spelling out his policy on Papua'€™s media freedom.

HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine deplored statements by two of Jokowi'€™s Cabinet ministers, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijanto and Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, whom he said had shown '€œwillful ignorance or outright hostility'€ against the President'€™s recent shift in the long-standing policy of media freedom in Papua.

'€œPurdijatno and Ryacudu'€™s comments are more than repugnant expressions of contempt for media freedom,'€ said Kine in a statement on Thursday.

The HRW activist said that on May 26, or just two weeks after Jokowi announced media freedom for Papua, Tedjo told reporters that a team including Indonesian Military and National Police personnel would continue to tightly monitor foreign journalists who reported from Papua.

On the same day, Ryamizard said that if access to Papua was granted to journalists, it came with an obligation to produce '€œgood reports'€.

Kine said the two minsters had blatantly undermined Jokowi'€™s May 10 announcement of an immediate lifting of restrictions on foreign media access to Papua.

'€œThat announcement was a much-anticipated change Widodo signaled in his election campaign in June 2014, when he stated during a stop in Papua that the government '€˜has nothing to hide'€™ there,'€ he said.

HRW stated that the government had long justified tight media controls as a necessary security precaution because of the ongoing conflict with the Free Papua Movement (OPM), a small and poorly organized independence movement.

The government also consistently arrests and jails Papuan protesters for peacefully advocating independence or other political change, it further said.

'€œPresident Jokowi'€™s initiative to allow foreign media to freely report from Papua indicates that he sees media freedom as part of the solution to Papua'€™s toxic combination of political repression and impunity,'€ said Kine. (ebf)

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