Ihsanuddin, Jakarta – The Press Council has released the survey results on the 2020 Press Freedom Index (IKP) in 34 provinces throughout Indonesia.
In general, the survey results showed a 1.56 point improvement in comparison with 2019. Nationally the 2020 Press Freedom Index stood at 75.27 and is included in the category of “sufficiently free” (cukup bebas).
“The trend in the IKP has experienced a shift from the category of ‘quite free’ (akak bebas) between 2016 and 2018, and in 2019 to 2020 became ‘sufficiently free’”, said Press Council organisational empowerment commission chairperson Asep Setiawan during a virtual press conference on Friday September 11.
The 2020 Press Freedom Index at the provincial level ranged between 70.42 and 84.50.
The survey results showed that the index for Jakarta, Papua and West Java provinces were in the lowest three positions. Setiawan said that the provinces with the lowest Press Freedom Index were Jakarta province (72.63 percent), West Papua province (71.06 percent) and Papua Province (70.42 percent).
According to Setiawan, this was largely influenced by the political dynamics which occurred in 2019. “As we know in Jakarta province there were cases of violence against journalists and in Papua there were internet access restrictions”, he said.
In fifth position meanwhile was Maluku which was followed by Central Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, West Sumatra and Riau.
The survey represents a picture of the state of press freedom for the period January 2019 to December 2019. The survey was conducted in 34 provinces involving nine expert resource people in each province.
Meanwhile the nine experts were comprised of three leaders of active journalist organisations, two chief editors from media companies, two people from the government and two people from the public.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Indeks Kemerdekaan Pers di Jakarta, Papua Barat, dan Papua Paling Rendah”.]
