Police Allegedly Intimidate Reporters during Rally at MPR Session
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Editor
16 August 2019 17:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The police have allegedly committed violence against journalists of TV, online and print media during the MPR annual session. The police supposedly intimidated reporters covering a rally staged by laborers in front of the parliament building, Friday, August 16 are intimidated by the police.
Antara news agency observed there were several journalists from various media, including SCTV, Viva News, Bisnis Indonesia, Jawa Pos, and INews TV hurt by Jakarta Metro Police officers.
An SCTV reporter claimed he was beaten and fell in front of the TVRI station building while reporting in the area. A journalist from VivaNews said he was also intimidated by the police after using his cell phone to record the latter forcibly dispersing the rally. He said police officers urged him to delete the video or photo, otherwise he would be taken to a police car.
A photographer from Bisnis Indonesia, Nurul Hidayat, was also asked by the police to erase her photos as she captured images of laborers brought to a police car.
“When I was taking photos of workers taken to the police car, there was an officer asking me to erase them. There was a verbal fight as I was trying to keep the photos until another officer came and said they would take me, too,” she said.
A photographer from Jawa Pos, Miftahul, even got worse intimidation. “My shirt was pulled out, and my photos were removed forcibly,” said Miftah, adding that the officers told him to wait for a press conference or else he would be arrested.
Similar to Miftah, an INews TV reporter had to delete his video about the demonstration in front of the TVRI building and said there would be a press conference later as the police informed.
ANTARA
