RSF asks Indonesia’s president to let journalists work in West Papua
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to keep his election promise to allow local and international journalists to operate in West Papua, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, without obstruction or surveillance. RSF’s appeal follows the expulsion of two French camera operators, including Basile Longchamp, on visa violation grounds on 17 March.
Accompanied by a film crew, Longchamp and his colleague arrived in Indonesia in February with the government’s permission to make a documentary that would involve filming in West Papua. However, shortly after arriving, the authorities accused them of displaying a “lack of coordination with related institutions” – with the result that they were deported and, for the time being, are banned from returning to Indonesia.
“We remind the Indonesian president of his undertaking to scrap the restrictions that obstruct the work of foreign journalists and camera operators in West Papua,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Indonesia is due to host the World Press Freedom Day celebrations on 3 May but, given its repeated refusals to issue press visas and the growing number of journalists on its blacklist, it falls far short of qualifying as a country that supports freedom of expression and media freedom.”
During his campaign for election as president in July 2014, Widodo said he would allow journalists to visit West Papua freely, thereby raising hopes that media freedom would revive in the region.
In January 2016, RSF condemned the Indonesian government’s refusal to let French journalist Cyril Payen visit Indonesia after France 24 broadcast the documentary he had just made about West Papua, entitled “Forgotten war of the Papuas.”
A Bangkok-based reporter specializing in Southeast Asia, Payen had nonetheless obtained all the necessary authorizations before visiting West Papua in mid-2015. The broadcasting of the documentary also resulted in the French ambassador being summoned to the Indonesian foreign ministry.
It was under Indonesia’s immigration laws, which RSF has repeatedly condemned, that two British journalists, Rebecca Prosser and Neil Bonner, were sentenced to two and a half months in prison on 3 November 2015 for violating the terms of their visas. They had already spent more than 150 days in police custody when they were finally sentenced.
Two French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, were arrested while preparing a report in West Papua in August 2014. After being held for more than two months, they were sentenced on 24 October 2014 to two and a half months in prison for violating the immigration laws.
Indonesia is ranked 130th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
