ID :
155592
Sat, 01/01/2011 - 11:38
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/155592
The shortlink copeid
Year-ender: RI JOURNALISTS STILL TARGETS OF VIOLENCE
By Rahmad Nasution
Jakarta, Dec 31 (ANTARA) - About 38 hours ahead of the new year 2011, Indonesian journalists were again shocked by violence against some of their peers. This time it was an attack on the Alliance of Independent Journalists' (AJI) office in the Central Sulawesi city of Palu.
A group of unidentified men stormed the AJI office on Thursday at 10.30 AM local time and beat up two journalists who were in the building. They were the chairman of AJI-Palu Chapter M.Ridwan Lapasere and TV-One contributor Muhammad Sharfin. Ridwan was hurt in the head and Mohammad in the back of his head.
Two other journalists named Riski Maruto of ANTARA News Agency and Jafar G.Bua of Trans TV were kicked by the attackers but they did not sustain injuries.
The attack was believed to have been triggered by a news story titled "FPK Serang Graha KNPI Sulteng" (FPK Attacks Central Sulawesi's KNPI office) the AJI-Palu Chapter's secretariat had released in its online media www.beritapalu.com on December 28, 2010.
The news item was about damages of the National Indonesian Youth Committee (KNPI) building following the defeat of a youth figure in the organization's leadership election at a congress on December 28.
The youth figure and his men of the Kaili Youth Front (FPK) might have been disturbed by that news item but, instead of filing their complaint through legal means, they chose the violent way by attacking the AJI office.
As revealed in its official website, AJI condemned the incident and urged the police to immediately arrest and bring all suspects to court.
"The police's immediate actions are so important that the journalist attackers are not able to perish evidence or escape," AJI said.
The attack was a sort of pressure on the press and potentially terrorized media workers who attempted to serve the public with information under the protection of Law Number 40/1990 on the press, AJI said.
Apart from this unsettled case, the Palu incident itself is only one of at least 37 violence that have happened to journalists and media in various parts of Indonesia this year.
From the 37 violence cases, AJI noted that only two cases the court could have handled. "This has evidently shown us that law enforcers wittingly ignore acts of violence against journalists," AJI said.
AJI's criticism is arguably evident because the Palu incident is just the repetition of previous acts of violence. Last January, the Persebaya soccer club's angry supporters on board of a train in Central Java city of Solo, for instance, brutally attacked a photo stringer of ANTARA News Agency, named Hasan Sakri Ghozali, while taking their pictures.
Another violence also happened to two journalists in West Kalimantan last February. At the time, a local motel owner beat Pionerson, a Tribun Newspaper journalist, and Martono, a stringer of TVOne news channel, when they were covering an illegal residents raid.
Juhry Samaneri, SCTV correspondent in the Maluku city of Ambon, was also attacked by certain people when doing his journalistic work at the Ambon court in May.
The above samples of violent incidents indicate that professional journalists' efforts to frame the truth of factual reality into media reality to be then published or shown to the public are not always accepted by people.
Regarding the Palu incident, which has triggered protests from journalists, students, and non-governmental organization activists in such cities as Palu (Central Sulawesi), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara) and Palembang (South Sumatra), the police had got a suspect.
Central Sulawesi Police Chief Senior Commissioner Dewa Made Persana said a man suspected of involvement in the AJI office attack had surrendered to the police.
"I just received a report that one of the suspects has surrendered," he told demonstrators coordinated by the Anti Violence Coalition (KAK) in Palu on Friday. But Dewa did not reveal the suspect's identity, saying only he was now in police custody.
The coalition itself was supported by local print and electronic media workers, university students and non-governmental organization activists.
Dewa Parsana said the suspect who had surrendered was being questioned as part of the police investigators' seriousness to solve the case as soon as possible.
He said the attack and manhandling the suspects had perpetrated against working journalists could not be tolerated and were against the law.
"I am deeply concerned about this incident, I will do the best I can to solve this case. Please, support me," he said when visiting the AJI-Palu Chapter's secretariat on Thursday evening.
In response to the ongoing acts of violence against media and media workers in Indonesia, Chief of National Coordinator of the Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI)-Reformation Hussen Gani Maricar recently said those violent acts remained a serious threat in the country.
The fact that certain people or parties whose credibility might have been damaged by media reports chose violent acts rather than complaining to the respective media through legally-acceptable means had raised journalists' concern, he said.
"We hope there will be no more emotional parties who do such violent acts as torturing, beating, and killing journalists," he said and reminded the media workers of being professional in serving the public interests.
Jakarta, Dec 31 (ANTARA) - About 38 hours ahead of the new year 2011, Indonesian journalists were again shocked by violence against some of their peers. This time it was an attack on the Alliance of Independent Journalists' (AJI) office in the Central Sulawesi city of Palu.
A group of unidentified men stormed the AJI office on Thursday at 10.30 AM local time and beat up two journalists who were in the building. They were the chairman of AJI-Palu Chapter M.Ridwan Lapasere and TV-One contributor Muhammad Sharfin. Ridwan was hurt in the head and Mohammad in the back of his head.
Two other journalists named Riski Maruto of ANTARA News Agency and Jafar G.Bua of Trans TV were kicked by the attackers but they did not sustain injuries.
The attack was believed to have been triggered by a news story titled "FPK Serang Graha KNPI Sulteng" (FPK Attacks Central Sulawesi's KNPI office) the AJI-Palu Chapter's secretariat had released in its online media www.beritapalu.com on December 28, 2010.
The news item was about damages of the National Indonesian Youth Committee (KNPI) building following the defeat of a youth figure in the organization's leadership election at a congress on December 28.
The youth figure and his men of the Kaili Youth Front (FPK) might have been disturbed by that news item but, instead of filing their complaint through legal means, they chose the violent way by attacking the AJI office.
As revealed in its official website, AJI condemned the incident and urged the police to immediately arrest and bring all suspects to court.
"The police's immediate actions are so important that the journalist attackers are not able to perish evidence or escape," AJI said.
The attack was a sort of pressure on the press and potentially terrorized media workers who attempted to serve the public with information under the protection of Law Number 40/1990 on the press, AJI said.
Apart from this unsettled case, the Palu incident itself is only one of at least 37 violence that have happened to journalists and media in various parts of Indonesia this year.
From the 37 violence cases, AJI noted that only two cases the court could have handled. "This has evidently shown us that law enforcers wittingly ignore acts of violence against journalists," AJI said.
AJI's criticism is arguably evident because the Palu incident is just the repetition of previous acts of violence. Last January, the Persebaya soccer club's angry supporters on board of a train in Central Java city of Solo, for instance, brutally attacked a photo stringer of ANTARA News Agency, named Hasan Sakri Ghozali, while taking their pictures.
Another violence also happened to two journalists in West Kalimantan last February. At the time, a local motel owner beat Pionerson, a Tribun Newspaper journalist, and Martono, a stringer of TVOne news channel, when they were covering an illegal residents raid.
Juhry Samaneri, SCTV correspondent in the Maluku city of Ambon, was also attacked by certain people when doing his journalistic work at the Ambon court in May.
The above samples of violent incidents indicate that professional journalists' efforts to frame the truth of factual reality into media reality to be then published or shown to the public are not always accepted by people.
Regarding the Palu incident, which has triggered protests from journalists, students, and non-governmental organization activists in such cities as Palu (Central Sulawesi), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara) and Palembang (South Sumatra), the police had got a suspect.
Central Sulawesi Police Chief Senior Commissioner Dewa Made Persana said a man suspected of involvement in the AJI office attack had surrendered to the police.
"I just received a report that one of the suspects has surrendered," he told demonstrators coordinated by the Anti Violence Coalition (KAK) in Palu on Friday. But Dewa did not reveal the suspect's identity, saying only he was now in police custody.
The coalition itself was supported by local print and electronic media workers, university students and non-governmental organization activists.
Dewa Parsana said the suspect who had surrendered was being questioned as part of the police investigators' seriousness to solve the case as soon as possible.
He said the attack and manhandling the suspects had perpetrated against working journalists could not be tolerated and were against the law.
"I am deeply concerned about this incident, I will do the best I can to solve this case. Please, support me," he said when visiting the AJI-Palu Chapter's secretariat on Thursday evening.
In response to the ongoing acts of violence against media and media workers in Indonesia, Chief of National Coordinator of the Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI)-Reformation Hussen Gani Maricar recently said those violent acts remained a serious threat in the country.
The fact that certain people or parties whose credibility might have been damaged by media reports chose violent acts rather than complaining to the respective media through legally-acceptable means had raised journalists' concern, he said.
"We hope there will be no more emotional parties who do such violent acts as torturing, beating, and killing journalists," he said and reminded the media workers of being professional in serving the public interests.
