| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Journalists condemn police decision to charge Post editor with blasphemy
Jakarta Globe - December 12, 2014
Jakarta Police named Meidyatama a blasphemy suspect on Thursday over the publication of a caricature on July 3. The image showed an ISIS flag with the oval replaced by a skull and crossbones below "there is no God except Allah" in Arabic.
AJI claimed that the Post had already done enough to forego criminal charges by complying with the Press Council's order to apologize and retract the caricature. This should have served as an adequate face-saving exit for all sides in which the situation should have been successfully defused, it argued. But apparently not so.
"The Jakarta Post has apologized and taken back the caricature," AJI chief Suwarjono said on Friday. The apology was delivered in two languages – Bahasa Indonesia and English – and emphasized that the newspaper had no intention of mocking Islam.
"We sincerely apologize and retract the editorial cartoon printed on page 7 in the July 3, 2014, edition of The Jakarta Post?," the newspaper wrote in July. "The cartoon contained religious symbolism that may have been offensive to some. The Post regrets the error in judgment, which was in no way meant to malign or be disrespectful to any religion."
In Friday's edition of the Jakarta Post, Meidyatama has written a statement expressing disbelief that the police have elected to charge him with a criminal offense.
"We are amazed because the fact is we did not commit a criminal act as accused," the statement said. "What we produced was a journalistic piece that criticized the ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] movement, which has carried out violence in the name of religion."
"It means that the ISIS caricature was not blasphemous. We all know that ISIS is an organization that is banned in Indonesia and across almost the entire world."
Post journalists have been briefed not to speak about the crisis. AJI said the heavy-handed approach by police was regrettable. "The caricature reminded the public that a threat by radical organizations can endanger civil order and even the freedom of speech in Indonesia," Suwarjono said.
AJI urged police to stop the investigation and leave the case to Press Council as regulated in Article 15 of 1999 Law No. 40 on Press. The law gives the authority in any dispute or complaint related to the press to the Press Council and a special treatment to such cases to not be treated as criminal cases.
"What's the point of having a Press Law that gives a special exception to press-related cases if [the police] put everything into the criminal law sector?" the AJI chief said.
After being named a suspect, Meidyatama will be summoned for further investigation. "Investigators plan to summon M.S. of The Jakarta Post as a suspect next week," Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Thursday. "We named him as suspect after questioning of witnesses, experts on law and religion, and the Press Council."
See also:
 |