TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Witnesses testify in British journalists' case
Heavy handed: British journalists Neil Bonner (second left) and Becky Prosser (second right) await their hearing at Batam District Court in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday
Change Size
Heavy handed: British journalists Neil Bonner (second left) and Becky Prosser (second right) await their hearing at Batam District Court in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday. They were arrested by the Indonesian Navy for illegally making a film about pirates in the Malacca Strait. Their lawyer lodged a protest with the police for handcuffing his clients at the trial.(JP/Fadli) (second left) and Becky Prosser (second right) await their hearing at Batam District Court in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday. They were arrested by the Indonesian Navy for illegally making a film about pirates in the Malacca Strait. Their lawyer lodged a protest with the police for handcuffing his clients at the trial.(JP/Fadli)
H
span class="inline inline-center">Heavy handed: British journalists Neil Bonner (second left) and Becky Prosser (second right) await their hearing at Batam District Court in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday. They were arrested by the Indonesian Navy for illegally making a film about pirates in the Malacca Strait. Their lawyer lodged a protest with the police for handcuffing his clients at the trial.(JP/Fadli)
Two British journalists arrested for allegedly filming a documentary on piracy without press visas on the Malacca Strait ' Becky Prosser, 30, and Neil Bonner, 31 ' attended their second hearing on Thursday at the Batam District Court in Riau Islands.
Two witnesses, the Navy's Batam-based quick response commander, Capt. Rudi Amiruddin, and one of the actors, Apsom Kakahue, 49, testified.
Rudi said that his patrol arrested the journalists after receiving information on their presence four days earlier.
'A source told us that there would be a film shoot about the Malacca Strait by foreigners. So, we went to observe,' Rudi told the panel of judges led by presiding judge Wahyu Prasetyo.
Apsom said that he was asked to act out piracy without a script.
'Each of us received Rp 3 million (US$204) for acting like pirates for the film,' Apsom said.
The patrol arrested the two journalists, along with nine Indonesian nationals, on Belakang Padang Island in Batam on May 28. They were said to have been filming a National Geographic-funded documentary.
The nine were released on their own recognizance on May 30 on the condition that they sign a letter expressing their readiness to be summoned at any time. The two journalists, who worked for London-based documentary film production company Wall to Wall, have been detained for over three months.
The Batam-based chairman for the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Zuhri Muhammad, said that Batam law enforcers should not have detained them.
'This trial means that the authorities have criminalized the journalists for doing their job,' Zuhri said.
The Batam Prosecutor's Office's general crime head, Ali Akbar, previously said that the journalists would be charged under Article 122, paragraph A of the 2011 Immigration Law, which carries a maximum punishment of five years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 500 million. Both entered Indonesia via the International Batam Center Ferry Port on Visas on Arrival (VoA).
Reporters Without Borders (RsF), a France-based international non-profit organization, said the government had violated Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by arresting the two British video journalists.
'Journalists should be able to seek information and circulate it freely, regardless of the world's borders. So, foreign journalists should be allowed to conduct their activities freely like any Indonesian journalist. That's for [President Joko] Jokowi's [Widodo] administration to remember,' RsF's Asia-Pacific desk head, Benjamin Ismail, said.
Ismail further said the government's move was in violation of the Indonesian population's right to receive information.
'The government commits many violations and wants to avoid being exposed,' he said.
According to the 2015 Press Freedom Index released by RsF, Indonesia is ranked 138th out of 180 countries.
Ismail said this was mostly due to a lack of access to information and violence toward reporters. 'Journalists are not protected enough by the law,' he said. (foy)
