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strong>Sept. 2, p2

Two British journalists may face five years'€™ imprisonment for illegally making a documentary in Batam, Riau Islands, an official says.

General crimes division head at Batam Prosecutor'€™s Office Ali Akbar said on Wednesday that the two journalists Neil Bonner, 31, and Becky Posser ,30, were charged with violating the Immigration Law, which carried a penalty of five years'€™ imprisonment for misusing tourist visas for making a documentary film.

Bonner and Posser have been held at the Batam Immigration Detention House for three months while waiting for the next legal step.

Your comments:

Here we are once again. The Indonesian authorities bullying foreign journalists in the hope that no one dares to write up a report that would make Indonesia look bad. In short, the Indonesian authorities only want to propagate holiday postcard images.  

Meanwhile, the police and military are busy getting their share of criminal activities, which include piracy in the Malacca Strait.  

Recently, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat were arrested for investigating the activities of police and military in West Papua. They were jailed for weeks and the Indonesian authorities confiscated most of the highly valuable material they had shot for a documentary.

More recently, US journalists were able to uncover slavery in the fishing business in Maluku, to which the police and Navy were obviously linked.

No journalist was arrested, but one of the journalists'€™ collaborators was murdered in Jakarta soon after.

Silvio Bari

The British couple was probably caught filming military corruption, such as activity related to drug smuggling and piracy. That'€™s why they are coming down hard.

Earlier this year, foreign tourists in Bali were arrested for taking professional photographs for a calendar. They got sent home.

SD

Slap their wrists and send them home like any civilized country would do.

Simaging

Most of the people caught violating the law on the island were Indonesians.

Kantisini

It seems the punishment is a bit overzealous, as if some of you have been reading way too many conspiracy books.

BB