Decline of Indonesian Press Freedom
Monday, 01 May, 2006 | 16:22 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Head of the Central Executive committee of the Voice of Human Rights News Center, Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, said that press freedom in Indonesia declined drastically in 2005. The data from Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters without Boundaries) shows Indonesia’s position went down from the 57-th place out of 139 countries to 102-nd place from 167 countries in 2005.

In the rank of press freedom, Indonesia is in third place in Southeast Asia in 2005. Three years ago, Indonesia was in first place. “This is due to the various violent acts against reporters and the press media,” Atma told Tempo in Jakarta, yesterday.

The former Press Council Head recalled the assault cases against reporters, as happened to TVRI cameraman, Mohamad Jamaluddin, who was killed in Aceh, the hostage-taking of RCTI's two reporters, Ersa Siregar and Fery Santoro by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) which caused Ersa's death, and the latest cases of the attack on Indopos's office in Jakarta by Hercules and the violence against two reporters when covering the demonstration in Pembangunan Nasional Veteran University in Surabaya, East Java.

Rini Kustiani