Nature Alert: Indonesian logging firm detains TV journalists

Friday 10 July 2009

Indonesian logging firm detains TV journalists

Indonesian logging firm detains TV journalists

10 July 2009
Source: AJI

Security officers of an Indonesian logging company detained three members of a French TV news crew on 10 July 2009 in Jambi province, Sumatra.

The journalists were identified as Ciryl Payen, Southeast Asia bureau chief of the TV station France 24; Gilaume Martin, also a French national; and Dewi Arilaha, an Indonesian national.

Dewi said security officers of PT Lontar Papirup Pulp and Papers, a subsidiary company of Sinar Mas Group Company apprehended them while taking videos of the trucks loaded with logs parked in the company's premises in Tebing Tinggi. The company's head of security, identified as Eriyanto, also seized their video tapes.

The three journalists were then brought to the local police office. The police, however, can not think of an appropriate charge to file against them.

Despite this, Eriyanto continued to detain them, saying they took video footages of the company's property without seeking permission.

The three journalists were doing an in-depth investigation of PT Sinar Mas' alleged illegal logging operations to get materials for its paper products. PT Sinar Mas is one of the largest paper companies in Indonesia. The journalists have previously interviewed the director of the Sinar Mas Group, Gandhi Sulistiyono, and Mahfud, the Head of Information of the Forest Ministry.

AJI condemns the detention of the three journalist and called on the paper company to release them. In a statement, AJI quoted the Law Number 40 Year 1999 on the Press, which stipulates that whoever hinders the press from getting information would face two years' imprisonment and a fine of more than 500 million Indonesian Rupiah (around US$50,000).

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The Allansi Jurnalis Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists or AJI) is a founding member of SEAPA. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, AJI seeks to promote press freedom and protect the rights of Indonesian journalists.

http://www.seapabkk.org/newdesign/alertsdetail.php?No=1120

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.