Indonesia: journalist beaten by police for reporting
Event- Country
- Indonesia
- Initial Date
- Mar 9, 2023
- Event Description
Cases of abuse against members of the press occurred again at the Keerom District Government office, Papua Province, on Thursday 09/03/2023, around 14:00 WIT.
This abuse occurred in the office area of the Keerom Regency Border Area Management and Cooperation Agency, while carrying out his journalistic duties in the online media globalinvestigation.com, whose initials "N" were beaten by security officers (Police).
According to the victim's statement, the chronology of the incident of persecution allegedly occurred because of previously published reports regarding the beating of a member of the public against a Satpol PP officer who was on duty in the Deputy Regent's and Keerom Regional Secretary rooms.
Moments later, the police officer (perpetrator) came out of his room and looked for the victim (journalist) then shouted loudly reprimanding and hitting the victim while he was standing near the betel nut seller, next to the Border Area Management Agency office. The victim saw a security guard (police) with several of his colleagues walking quickly up to him, then the security officer (police) said
"I just got the news that was shared. Why bring down the Keerom Government?” he said.
Then the security guard (police) punched the victim, and the victim only tried to dodge and block the blows, but several punches were made to the victim's face resulting in bruises.
Then from that, the victim ran into the room of the secretary of the Border Agency office to save himself, but the security guard (police) continued to chase the victim and the victim fell down, then was beaten again by him ".
"When the victim was hit, it was suspected that there was a tone of threat to shoot the victim with a gun," said the person loudly to the victim "Don't you know me? person against the victim".
After that, the victim told the unscrupulous person that the news did not bring down the Keerom District Government.
The victim made this report spontaneously when an incident occurred when a member of the public beat a Satpol PP officer, besides the victim was not far from the TKP.
JLW, when confirmed by the media crew, confirmed that the victim's family had made a Police Report (LP) and a post mortem et repertum was being carried out at the Kwaingga Keerom Hospital.
He conveyed that he, as a family, deeply regretted the unethical behavior of unscrupulous members in the persecution of his younger sibling.
He asked that unscrupulous members be dealt with strictly according to applicable law and investigators must also apply the rules of the Press Law because at the time of the incident the victim was a journalist carrying out his journalistic duties. This has hindered his work as a journalist and the perpetrators must also be charged under Article 18 of the Press Law No. 40 of 1999 which carries a penalty of 2 years in prison or a fine of Rp. 500 million.
JLW continued, "there is no word of peace", the behavior of unscrupulous members also seriously injured our family's honor. If these unscrupulous members are not processed, then I as a family will complain about this to the National Police Headquarters, "said JLW.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Online
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: -2.782538847969811
Longitude: 140.90824624013786
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 9 March 2023, a journalist with the initial "N" was beaten and threatened by a police officer after reporting on a municipal police beating in Keroom, Papua.