Haryanti Puspa Sari, Jakarta – Greenpeace Indonesia global forest campaign head Kiki Taufik says they regret that their criticisms of the data on deforestation conveyed in President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's speech at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow have ended in them being reported to the police.
"We deeply regret being reported like this, because we are currently in the middle of focusing on the outcomes of the COP26 which will determine the world's future in the face of the climate crisis which will impact on all of us including also on the person who submitted the police report and their family", said Taufik during a virtual press conference titled "The COP26 Final Agreements Which are Far from Expectations" on Monday November 15.
Taufik said that deeming Greenpeace's criticisms as fake news or hoaxes is a baseless accusation, because in responding to President Widodo's speech they used data from the Environment and Forestry Ministry.
"Meaning if we are accused of spreading fake news it means that the reporter is also accusing the government's data of being lies", he said.
Taufik explained that they simply conveyed several facts about what was not conveyed by the government to provide balanced information to the public.
"There was absolutely no words in our press release which could be said to be, were related to hate speech", he said.
Taufik also said that their being reported to the police adds to the long list of threats against freedom of expression under the Widodo administration.
He said that the use of the problematic articles under the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE Law) as the basis for the report should not be accepted by the police.
"Because there was a joint ministerial decree between the Ministry of Information, the Attorney General and the police chief on the implementation of the ITE Law so the police should reject the report", he said.
Furthermore, Taufik said, the report against Greenpeace is part of an attempt to silence public participation.
Yet according to Law Number 32/2009 on the Protection and Management of the Environment, it guarantees protection for anyone participating in saving the government.
"So this is what we want to convey in relation to and in response to this issue", he said in conclusion.
As reported by Kompas TV, Greenpeace Indonesia Chairperson Leonard Simanjuntak and Kiki Taufik were reported for crimes under the ITE Law to the Jakarta Metro Jaya regional police following criticisms of President Widodo's speech at the GOP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The reporter was submitted by the head of Cyber Indonesia, Husin Shahab, who claimed that the data conveyed by Greenpeace was not in accordance with the facts and misleading.
During his speech at COP26 Widodo conveyed Indonesia's achievements in forestry over the last few years. Widodo discussed the rate of deforestation and mangrove rehabilitation.
Widodo said that that the rate of deforestation was the lowest in the last 20 years and that forest fires in Indonesia had declined by as much as 82 percent in 2020.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Greenpeace Indonesia Sayangkan Kritik atas Pidato Jokowi soal Deforestasi Berujung Pelaporan".]
