TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) revealed a number of unfortunate incidents throughout 2019 regarding the freedom of the press. One of them is the numerous cases of violence committed against the work of journalists which amount to 53 cases.

Despite being lower than 2018 that saw 64 cases of violence, AJI chairman Abdul Manan said that the statistics are still above average for the past ten years. The cases range from physical violence (20 cases), journalist’s tool or data tampering (14 cases), threats on violence or terror (6 cases), criminalization (5 cases), and preventing a journalist from reporting (4 cases).

“Cases of physical violence still dominated as in previous years. Last year saw 12 cases of physical violence while 2017 saw 30 cases,” said Abdul Manan.

The most worrying fact according to AJI is that the violence committed against journalists in 2019, 30 out of 53 cases were committed by police members. Which most of them happened in two major events in May and September rallies.

AJI’s identification and verification from the Journalist Safety Committee found that the major cause of the acts of violence from police is due to journalists documenting police’s acts of violence.

The repeating nature of violence against journalists, AJI says, has happened due to the lack of law enforcement in solving the cases. The association says most violence committed against journalists rarely end up in court.

“Even though there is a reluctance from the journalists’ side, the major factor is the practice of impunity from the perpetrators,” said Abdul.

HALIDA BUNGA