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bservers and activists have questioned the Yogyakarta Police’s move to summon a student reporter as a witness in an alleged rape case involving two Gadjah Mada University (UGM) students.

The director of the Yogyakarta Indonesian Islamic University’s Center for Human Rights Studies, Eko Riyadi, said the reporter was not at the scene when the alleged rape happened so cannot be questioned as a witness.

“The police can seek information or clues from the reporter but cannot use it in the dossier,” Eko told The Jakarta Post.

On Monday, the Yogyakarta Police summoned Citra Maudy Mahanani, 20, of UGM student press Balairung and questioned her for about two hours.

Balairung was the first media outlet to publish the story about the alleged rape against Agni (not her real name) by her fellow student HS during a compulsory community work program in a Maluku village in June 2017.

Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists Yogyakarta branch Anang Zakaria shared the view.

“Reporters cannot be summoned as witnesses. The police should investigate the case by using the information published on Balairung,” Anang said.

Citra’s lawyer Yogi Zul Fadhli of the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute said the investigators had asked questions surrounding the process of news writing, which he called irrelevant to the investigation.

Yogyakarta Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Yulianto said it was necessary to summon Citra because Balairung was the first media outlet to publish the story about the alleged sexual abuse before it finally caught the public attention.

“Anyone who may know about the incident can be examined,” Yulianto said.

Meanwhile, UGM Rector Panut Mulyono finally managed to fulfill the summons of the Indonesian Ombudsman’s Yogyakarta office (ORI Yogyakarta) on Tuesday for questioning. Previously, the ombudsman blamed the university management’s failure to fulfill their summons for the slow progress in the case investigation.

“We have given all of the information needed by the ombudsman,” Panut told reporters, adding that he answered seven questions from the ORI Yogyakarta regarding the steps taken by UGM in handling the case.

Rifka Annisa Woman Crisis Center deplored the UGM’s slow handling, pointing out that the center, which has been assisting Agni since last year, had not heard any progress from the ethics team established by the university to address the case.

“The team completed their work on Dec. 31, but we haven’t heard of the results,” Rifka Annisa director Suharti said.

According to Suharti, the university management has yet to fulfill a number of recommendations made by an ad-hoc team established by UGM, including providing financial support to cover her medical treatment and
therapies.

Agni’s lawyer Udi Catur Handayani said that Agni had initially refused to report her case to the police, citing security concerns.