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.
Analysis: Critical media, NGOs accused of working for foreign interests, including Soros
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Paper man: Kadum sells newspapers and magazines from his bicycle. (JP/Permata Adinda)
N
ews media outlets and civil society organizations known to be critical of the government of Prabowo Subianto are coming under attack, mostly online, with accusations that they work for foreign interests. American billionaire, investor and philanthropist George Soros has been singled out as the main culprit behind them.
The latest online attacks are typically anonymous or come from little known public figures, so they may have little credibility despite going viral. But they were encouraged by Prabowo’s statements in February claiming that foreign forces are attempting to break the nation apart and undermine his policies.
“Soon will be unveiled the CSOs that are funded by foreign governments. Soon will be unveiled news media outlets that are really owned by foreigners,” he said in off the cuff remarks addressing the meeting of the Gerindra Party which he founded and leads.
“Should I reveal their names?” he asked the crowd, which responded in the affirmative. “Well, it’s not nice in the presence of journalists.”
While they did not come from Prabowo, some of their names did become public a month later in the wake of massive student protests around the country against the House of Representatives’ endorsement of the new revisions of the Indonesian Military (TNI) Law. Critics have said the legislation would further enable the creeping militarization of the state under Prabowo, himself a retired Army general.
Tempo, the news media outlet that has had a series of brushes with the law for its bold investigative reports, has become the prime target, both offline and online.
A courier service delivered a package on March 22 to Tempo’s office in Jakarta that contained the severed head of a pig with both ears cut off. The package from an unnamed sender was addressed to a female journalist who co-hosts the popular Bocor Alus videocasting program of political insights and gossip.
