New York, February 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists praises the Indonesian Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to overturn the September 2004 criminal libel conviction of Tempo magazine’s top editor, Bambang Harymurti. The three-judge panel ruled unanimously that civil, and not criminal, laws should apply. Lower courts had applied criminal law to convict and sentence…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to rescind four new broadcasting regulations that went into effect on Monday. As a nongovernmental organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, we are concerned that these regulations will limit foreign broadcasts in a way that will hamper the free flow of information necessary for Indonesia’s growing democracy. The new regulations confine broadcasts from international sources to shortwave radio and cable television networks, shutting off a large portion of Indonesia’s listeners and viewers from news sources outside of the country. Your government should be working to broaden the numerous voices of information available on the country’s 160 radio and television stations rather than reining them in.
New York, December 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the local Southeast Maluku government’s order to shut down Radio Gelora Tavlul, a popular station in eastern Indonesia known for its criticism of the local government. Authorities accompanied by police entered the radio station in the remote city of Tual, capital of the Southeast Maluku…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the stalled police investigation into the disappearance of Elyuddin Telaumbanua, a journalist with the daily Berita Sore who was reported missing on the island of Nias off the northwestern coast of Sumatra on August 22.
New York, September 2, 2005—A journalist on the island of Nias off the western coast of Sumatra is missing 16 days after he left home to report on a murder. The Committee to Protect Journalists is probing the disappearance of Elyuddin Telaumbanua, a reporter for the daily Berita Sore, and called today for a thorough…
AUGUST 17, 2005 Posted: September 2, 2005 Elyuddin Telaumbanua, Berita Sore MISSING Telaumbanua left his house in the northern Nias town of Gunungsitoli aboard a motorcycle, taking along a tape recorder and camera. He told his wife that he would return from a reporting assignment in a few days, according to Berita Sore, a Medan-based…