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Police 'enemy of free press' in Indonesia: AJI
AJI noted that most violence involving police officers happened during mass rallies after the presidential election result came out on May 20-21, at the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Central Jakarta and during student protests against the planned revision of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on Sept. 23-30.
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Fighting for the rights: : Journalists stage a rally to protest violence against journalists in front of the Political, Legal and Security Affairs Coordinating Ministry in Jakarta on Aug. 25, 2016. (Antara/File)
T
he number of incidents of violence against journalists committed by police officers in 2019 has shown an increase even though the overall number of attacks against the media generally has decreased, according to the annual report of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
The report indicates a rising trend of violations against the free press committed by law enforcers in Indonesia.
Based on the report, 53 cases of violence against journalists were recorded in 2019 with 30 of them involving police officers.
The record shows a significant increase of police officers involved in the violence compared with last year’s 16 cases of police violence against journalist among the 64 reported cases of violence against the press.
“The police are the enemy of the free press in Indonesia because they are trying to silence us [journalists]. Until now, no police officer who has allegedly been involved in violence against journalists has been charged with a crime,” said AJI chairman Abdul Manan, at the press conference of the organization’s year-end report in Jakarta on Dec. 23.
Manan expressed his concerns over the situation because police officers, who are expected to uphold the law, were instead breaking it.
The AJI noted that most violence involving police officers happened during mass rallies after the presidential election result came out on May 20-21 at the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Central Jakarta and during student protests against the planned revision the Criminal Code (KUHP) on Sept. 23-30.
