Riky Ferdinanto, Jakarta – There have been many incidences of violence against journalists over the last year. “The perpetrators of violence have generally been [the participants of] mass actions”, said Eko Maryadi, the coordinator of the Alliance of Independent Journalist’s (AJI) advocacy division.

Maryadi said that based upon AJI’s records, there were at least 76 cases of violence against journalists over this period. As many as 24 of these occurred in Jakarta and East Java. “Twelve cases respectively”, he said.

The majority of cases took the form of physical violence (27 cases), threats (22 cases) and being forcibly removed (9 cases). Most of this violence was committed by demonstrators (18 cases), police (16 cases) and government officials (12 cases).

One example of such violence that stands out was that experienced by Gorontalo Post photo journalists Rosyid Azhar and RCTI Television contributor Erik Songkapu when they were covering the Gorontalo election of regional heads on April 7 this year.

Hundreds of supporters of the Gorontalo candidate major and deputy mayor AW Thalib and Ahmad Yani Suratinojo threatened them and prevented them from covering the event. On the same day, protesters attacked “en masse” the offices of Mimoza TV, the TVRI television station and Radio Republic Indonesia Gorontalo.

In a press release AJI said that it was concerned over these incidents and urged that the practice of violence against journalists be stopped. AJI also called on law enforces to be professional and use Law Number 40/1999 as a reference in the resolution of press disputes.

“Obstructing the job of journalists as agents of social control will have an impact on threats against social rights and access to information”, said Maryadi

[Translated by James Balowski.]