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.
Int'l communities decry arrest of journo
International journalists and agencies have condemned the arrest of American environmental journalist Philip Jacobson, who has been detained in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, for allegedly misusing his residency permit
Change Size
I
span>International journalists and agencies have condemned the arrest of American environmental journalist Philip Jacobson, who has been detained in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, for allegedly misusing his residency permit.
The reporter and editor of Mongabay, an environmental news website, was detained on Tuesday after being placed under city-arrest for more than a month while immigration officials investigated his alleged visa violations.
International media freedom agency Reporters without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement denouncing the arrest as an act of intimidation.
“The Central Kalimantan immigration officials have massively overstepped their powers. We call on the Law and Human Rights Ministry, which oversees the Immigration Directorate General, to ensure that this journalist is immediately released in accordance with the rule of law,” the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, Daniel Bastard, said in a press release on Wednesday.
The director of New Zealand-based news agency Pacific Media Center, David Robie, called the punitive measures against Jacobson unjustifiable and unacceptable.
“This slow detention then arrest of one of the world’s leading environmental journalists will do untold damage to Indonesia’s reputation on media issues and democracy,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
In a tweet, Sydney-based Indonesian sustainable forests executive Aida Greenbury called Jacobson an honest, passionate and dedicated journalist.
“He has been arrested. Indonesia: we are better than this. Revealing the truth is not a crime,” she tweeted.
On Jan. 23, Fetisov Journalism Award announced that Jacobson's work was the second place winner of the prestigious award for “Excellence in Environmental Journalism”.
Jacobson’s article is the third in an in-depth series on deforestation and land rights called Indonesia for Sale. The series is the product of 22 months of investigative reporting across the Southeast Asian country, interviewing fixers, middlemen, lawyers and companies involved in land deals, and those most affected by them, according to Mongabay.
Jacobson, however, could not make it to the ceremony as he has been arrested under Article 122 of the 2011 Immigration Law. If convicted of the charges, he faces a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to Rp 500 million (US$36,556).
Mongabay founder and chief executive officer Rhett A. Butler said the recognition was a great honor, as a lot of work had gone into producing the series.
"Phil was supposed to accept the award on behalf of the group of journalists who worked on the Indonesia for Sale project. Instead he is sitting in prison in Palangkaraya. I want to emphasize that Phil was in Palangkaraya to meet with officials and AMAN, specifically to learn about issues being discussed between the two parties," Butler told the Post on Thursday, referring to the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN).
“This trip was not related to any work Phil supported in the Indonesia for Sale series," he added.
One of the judges for the awards, Aidan White, told the Post that the award for Jacobson and his colleagues was "in recognition of terrific investigative journalism on environmental issues”.
“The fact that he was unable to attend the ceremony to receive his prize because of harassment by the authorities is a shocking reminder of the risks journalists take to tell important stories and to expose wrongdoing,” White, the president of the Ethical Journalism Network, added.
— Michael Andrew is an intern under the ACICIS program.
