(AJI/IFEX) – The following is a 30 April 2006 AJI statement: AJI opposes the efforts by the Mimika Police Office, in Timika, Papua, to bring criminal charges against two “Timika Pos” journalists, Edi Pratomo Cahyono and Marthen Joweni. On 28 April 2006, Cahyono and Marthen were arraigned on suspicion of violation of Articles 170 and […]
(AJI/IFEX) – The following is a 30 April 2006 AJI statement:
AJI opposes the efforts by the Mimika Police Office, in Timika, Papua, to bring criminal charges against two “Timika Pos” journalists, Edi Pratomo Cahyono and Marthen Joweni. On 28 April 2006, Cahyono and Marthen were arraigned on suspicion of violation of Articles 170 and 406 of the Indonesian Penal Code, regarding destruction of property. Both may be facing five years in prison. The journalists had been reported by the “Timika Pos” management and were accused of being responsible for damages to the “Timika Pos” office facilities during a strike by the newspaper’s employees in opposition to the new “Timika Pos” chief editor appointed by the media owner.
AJI also criticised an attack on the “Timika Pos” office. On 23 April, 50 people led by knife-wielding militants of Golkar, Indonesia’s largest political party, violently attacked “Timika Pos” journalists and other employees, in Mimika, Iwan. They obliged the workers to halt the strike and tried to expel them from the office. Although the workers replied that the strike was an internal matter, not an ethnic problem, the assailants continued to terrorise and threaten the workers.
AJI protested to the Mimika Baru Police office, saying that the police had not made serious efforts to respond to the brutal attack and to safeguard the “Timika Pos” workers from mob assaults. AJI noted that the paper’s employees had repeatedly requested such assistance from the police, and the “Timika Pos” office is only 250 metres from the police station.
The internal crisis at the “Timika Pos” has been triggered by the shareholders’ intervention in decisions of the “Timika Pos” editorial board. Chief commissioner Silvana Kristina, who owns 65 percent of the shares in PT Papua Media Grafika, appointed Baharudin as the new chief editor of the “Timika Pos.” The decision has been rejected by the employees and journalists, who are concerned that the appointment of the new editor could reduce the newspaper’s political independence.
Baharudin is the managing chairperson of the Golkar Party in Mimika County, and through his political position, he could easily use the “Timika Pos” in a campaign to hold the incumbent in position in the 2006 Mimika regional election. Baharudin is widely known as the brother of the Mimika Regent’s wife and as the manager of a famous Mimika bar and discothèque.
In 2004, Baharudin was terminated from his position as chief editor of “Radar Timika” newspaper (Jawa Pos Groups). In 2005, he was also terminated from “Timika Pos” while working in the advertising department.
Given the aforementioned, AJI:
1. Urges the two parties to engage in peaceful dialogue on the industrial dispute between the management and the workers to settle the dispute in line with the principles of justice and transparency
2. Requests that the police not continue their efforts to bring criminal charges against the two journalists for exercising their constitutional rights as workers, given that the right to strike is protected by the law
3. Recommends that legal action also be taken against the “Timika Pos”‘s assailants if the police still insist on continuing legal proceedings against the two journalists. This should also include action against the Mimika Baru Police apparatus for their act of omission during the attack on the “Timika Pos” office. It would be clearly discriminatory if the law were applied in a partial way.
Jakarta, 30 April 2006
