(CPJ/IFEX) – Leading Indonesian independent journalist Ahmad Taufik will receive the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on 19 November 1997 – the award he was unable to accept in 1995 because he was serving a three-year sentence in Indonesia for publishing articles critical of the Suharto regime. CPJ’s Asia […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – Leading Indonesian independent journalist Ahmad
Taufik will receive the International Press Freedom Award of the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on 19 November 1997 – the
award he was unable to accept in 1995 because he was serving a
three-year sentence in Indonesia for publishing articles critical
of the Suharto regime.
CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator A. Lin Neumann will present the
award to Taufik at an international meeting of journalists in
Vancouver at 6:30 pm (P.T.) in the Media Centre on the third
floor of the Plaza of Nations, the site of the “Open Market, Open
Media?” symposium on the status of free media in the Asia-Pacific
region. The day-long event is being held in conjunction with the
Asian and Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum of
ministerial and leaders meetings of the eighteen member nations
taking place in Vancouver from 19 to 25 November.
Taufik was released on parole from a remote Java prison in July
after serving two-thirds of his sentence. He is one of the
founders of the officially unrecognized Alliance of Independent
Journalists (AJI). He was arrested in March 1995 on charges
stemming from articles in AJI’s news magazine “Independen” on
issues of presidential succession and the family wealth of
Indonesian President Suharto. Taufik was convicted on 1 September
1995 for violating Article 19 of the press law, which prohibits
the publication of an unlicensed newspaper or magazine, and
Article 154 of the criminal code, which bars the expression of
“feelings of hostility, hatred or contempt toward the
government.” CPJ helped launch a campaign to win his release, and
in January 1996 sent a petition to President Suharto signed by
more than 300 leading American and international journalists.
Before helping to found AJI, Taufik, who served as its president,
was a reporter at the weekly news magazine “Tempo” until it was
banned by Suharto. “Tempo” was one of three news weeklies banned
by the Suharto regime in 1994, sparking nationwide demonstrations
and international condemnation. The Indonesian president has
continued to stifle any flowering of an independent press,
banning and censoring both foreign and local publications at will
and permitting severe beatings of journalists covering
demonstrations against his suppression of political opposition.
CPJ again named Suharto as one of ten worst enemies of the press
when it announced its annual list in May on World Press Freedom
Day.
“We are pleased that Ahmad Taufik can at last accept in person
the award conferred on him more than two years ago,” said William
A. Orme, Jr., CPJ’s executive director. “His release from prison
was greatly welcomed by all who support him and the cause of free
media in Indonesia. However, until the Suharto government removes
restrictions on press freedom, the struggle of Indonesia’s
journalists will not be over.”
