JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesia’s score in the press freedom index has slightly improved in 2021, according to the Press Council report.

The 2021 score stood at 76.02up from 0.75 points from 75.27 in the previous yearplacing Southeast Asia largest nation’s press freedom under the “moderately free” category.

The nation only obtained lower scores in three out of 20 indicators: Legal protection for people with disabilities, accurate and balanced information, and good corporate management.

On the provincial level, the Riau Island province has the highest press freedom index with 83.30 points while North Maluku has the lowest with 68.32 points.

In the launching of the press freedom index earlier this month on 1 September, Director-General for Public Information and Communication at the Ministry of Communication and Information, Mr Usman Kasong claimed that Indonesia’s press freedom index is better than that in countries like Poland and India.

“There is no press freedom in India right now,” he said at the launching, adding that one of the political parties taking power in both countries has halted the press freedom there.

Mr Usmanformerly a journaliststated that the ministry continues to communicate and cooperate with the Press Council regarding the maintenance of press freedom, warning media corporations to pay attention to the use of clickbait headlines.

“We see many clickbait headlines in online outlets and the Press Council should pay attention to this and hopefully we can reduce the use of such a format,” he added.

RSF report shows improvement in Indonesia’s press freedom, yet violence against journalists in Papua persists

Globally, The World Press Freedom Index, released by Reporters Without Border (RSF) showed that Indonesia’s press freedom index score in 2021 ranked 113rd, up from 119th in 2020.

However, the organisation also raised concerns over media restrictions in West Papua, where journalists are often under threat while carrying out their duties.

The Alliance for Independent Journalists (AJI) said that there have been 115 cases of violence against journalists in Papua in the past 20 years from 2000 to 2021 covering violence targeting non-Papua and Papua journalists.

In addition, AJI sent a formal letter to Papua Police Chief, Inspector-General Mathius Fakhiri on 16 August, urging the regional police to investigate terror attacks on two journalists in Jayapura.

Victor Mambor and Lucky Ireeuw’s cars were damaged by unidentified people.

AJI believed that such an attack was linked to their duties in covering issues in the province.

The politicization of UU ITE is still one of the concerns

The politically-motivated implementation of the Electronic and Information Transactions Law has become one of the concerns, given that the law is often used to silence the government’s outspoken critics.

The arrest of a lecturer at the Syiah Kuala University Banda Aceh who criticised the recruitment of government employees on the campus via a WhatsApp group in 2019 drew attention from academics and rights activists.

Saiful Mahdia statistics lecturer at the universityquestioned the recruitment process after finding out that one of the applicants passed the selection despite downloading the wrong document.

He was named a suspect for violating the law’s Article 27 on defamation and was jailed for three months.

Amnesty International Indonesia in its release on 5 September 2019 urged the government to stop criminalising the lecturer.

“The decision of the Syiah Kuala University to let Saiful Mahdi be criminalised is a blemish on the academic world (and goes against the spirit of inquiry) that should and foster critical thinking through freedom of expression.

“A campus is a place where critical thinking is developed, not a place where critical ability from lecturers and students is silenced,” said the human rights organisation.

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