0 Assault on journalist condemned

Dozens of journalists, activists and students held a rally in front of the Air Force base at Ngurah Rai International Airport on Wednesday to express their solidarity with the Riau journalists who were assaulted and intimidated by Air Force personnel from Pekanbaru Air Force base when covering the crash of a Hawk 200 jet the previous day. They condemned the incident, saying that it had harmed the freedom of the press, which is clearly stipulated in the Press Law. They also demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono relieve the Air Force chief of staff and the Pekanbaru Air Force base commander of their positions.

At their rally, they upheld placards stating “Stop violence against journalists”, “Journalists are not the military’s enemy.” “We strongly condemn the assault and the violence committed by the Air Force personnel. Ironically, they carried out that act in front of many elementary school students. Is this the Air Force’s way of educating the public?” Bali Journalist Solidarity (SJB) coordinator Johannes P. Christo said. Christo suspected that the violence was part of the Air Force’s systematic pattern to undermine journalists and the principles of freedom of the press. He believed that the assault was not a spontaneous action and that the officers were executing orders from their superior officers.

“This is not the first incident,” he said, referring to an event in June when Air Force personnel assaulted several journalists covering a Fokker plane crash in a residential complex near Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force base in Jakarta. “The Indonesian Military [TNI] should protecting society. But, in fact, they don’t do that. We warned that once one journalist was beaten, a thousand journalists would make a move,” the freelance photojournalist said. Christo also deplored the justification offered by the Air Force’s top brass, who said that the incident happened because the personnel tried to secure the journalists and people around the area from a possible explosion.

“It makes no sense. As stipulated in the 2008 law No. 14 on the transparency of public information, public institutions, including TNI, should announce to the public when there is any information on security or safety threats that might affect the public. They shouldn’t use violence,” he stressed. An activist, Wayan Gendo Suardana, added that the Air Force should issue a public apology and stop justifying the deplorable action of its officers. “If they truly wanted to protect the journalists then why did they seize the journalists’ cameras, why did they beat up the journalists? It is very clear that all they wanted to do was prevent the journalists from taking pictures of the wreckage and remove all the photos of the incident from the journalists’ hands,” he said.

SJB demanded Yudhoyono discipline the officers involved. They also said that the Indonesian Air Force chief of staff Air Marshall Imam Sufaat and Pekanbaru Air Force base commander Col. Bowo Budiarto must be relieved from their posts. “They have failed to be good commanders,” Gendo said. Ngurah Rai Air Force base commander Lieutenant Colonel Atang Sudrajat said that he was deeply concerned with the incident in Riau. “We acknowledge that the incident should not have happened if there was good communication,” Sudrajat said.

source : bali daily