Indonesia: Journalist arrested for Twitter post on conditions in Papua

Dandhy Dwi Laksono, a journalist filmmaker for WatchDoc, was arrested on September 26 and charged under Indonesia’s controversial Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE Law) for a series of Twitter posts about the ongoing protests in Papua. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) supports its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia in their demand for all charges against the journalist to be dropped immediately.

Picture of Dhandy Credit: Facebook

Shortly after arriving home at 10.30pm, police came to Dhandy’s house with an arrest warrant, before taking him into custody for questioning at Jakarta Metro Police station. The police accused Dandhy of violating Article 28 and Article 45 of the ITE Law and Article 15 of the Criminal Code for a number of tweets on September 23 relating to the student protests in Wamena, Papua. These included a two photos and and several online articles. He was subsequently released at 4am the following morning.

Dandhy, a journalists and documentary filmmaker, serves as a member of AJI Indonesia’s Advisory Council and has produced more than a hundred documentaries as well as features highlighting the human rights abuses as well as social and environmental issues in Indonesia since 2009.

AJI in its statement, said the arrest of Dandhy was baseless and against the values of democracy. “We demand the police drop all the charges against Dandhy. His arrest is far from the spirit to protect and ensure the freedom of expression and freedom to speech which guaranteed by the Indonesian constitution.”

The IFJ said: “We condemn the arrest of Dandhy Dwi Laksono and urge the authorities drop all charges against him. Indonesia’s ITE law continues to be used as a weapon against the media and is all too frequently used to flagrantly undermine democracy and journalistic expression in Indonesia.”

For further information contact IFJ Asia - Pacific on [email protected]

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 140 countries

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