Attacks on the Press 2010: Asia Analysis
Partisan Journalism and the Cycle of Repression by Bob Dietz and Shawn W. Crispin Lal Wickramatunga’s family and publishing house, Leader Publications, have paid dearly in Sri Lanka’s highly charged political climate. While Leader’s newspapers, including the weekly Sunday Leader, are widely known for tough, independent reporting, they have been caught up in a partisan…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Indonesia
Top Developments • Nation slides backward on press freedom; censorship threats emerge. • Three reporters murdered and magazine attacked, all with impunity. Key Statistic 2: Years’ imprisonment given to Playboy Indonesia editor in a politicized prosecution. Indonesia slipped backward on press freedom as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government sought to balance progressive desires for an…
Indonesian editor dead under suspicious circumstances
New York, December 17, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with Indonesian journalist groups in calling for a full and vigorous investigation into the death of an editor on Kisar, one of the eastern Maluku Islands. Alfrets Mirulewan, chief editor of the Pelangi Weekly, was found with bruises on much of his body at 3…
Playboy Indonesia editor speaks out from jail
Although I refuse to say that I am guilty for violating criminal law for publishing Indonesia Playboy magazine, it never crossed my mind to run away or to try to avoid the two-year prison sentence handed down to me by the Supreme Court. I am a good citizen who respects the law in Indonesia.On Saturday,…
Arnada’s Supreme Court appeal continues in Indonesia
Here’s a quick update on the Indonesian Supreme Court’s ongoing hearing to review its decision to sentence Playboy Indonesia editor Erwin Arnada to two years in jail for “public indecency.” It’s a case I’ve been following closely, because the outcome is an indicator of which direction Indonesia will be moving in the coming years –…
Indonesian Playboy editor held in high-security prison
Erwin Arnada turned himself in to authorities at Cipinang prison in East Jakarta on October 9 to start serving a two-year sentence for public indecency. His conviction stemmed from pictures he published in a 2006 issue of the now-defunct Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine. On September 30, CPJ called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and…
CPJ asks Indonesian president to intervene in Playboy case
Dear President Yudhoyono: We are greatly concerned about the case of Erwin Arnada, the editor of Indonesia’s defunct version of Playboy magazine, who was sentenced to two years in prison for indecency by the Supreme Court. The court tried the case on an appeal from the attorney general’s office in July 2009 and some time after that sentenced Arnada to two years in prison for public indecency for publishing purportedly indecent pictures in a 2006 issue of the magazine. The magazine closed in mid-2007 after printing 10 issues.