Pacific Media Watch

29 November 2010

INDONESIA: Journalists face death threats while reporting at migrant workers shelter

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JAKARTA: A number of journalists were threatened, and several came under attack, while reporting at a shelter for Indonesian migrant workers in Condet, East Jakarta, on Tuesday.

"Bottles were thrown at us from outside," said Stephen, part of a group of reporters from television station Trans 7, as quoted by newswire Tempo Interaktif.

The incident began when the journalists showed up to cover an unscheduled inspection of the shelter by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. The shelter is managed by PT Dwi Insan Setia.

Stefanus said one of his colleagues, a cameraman from SCTV television station, was asked to hand over all of his footage while he was smoking outside of the shelter. He was told that he would be killed if he did not, Stefanus said, adding that his colleague had avoided trouble by going back into the shelter.

Stephanus said that he saw about 120 migrant workers at the shelter, and that some of them had broken down in tears when ministry officials inspected the shelter from 5pm until 8pm.

The men who had threatened the reporters, Stephanus said, were nowhere to be seen by the time the visit was wrapped up.

Stephanus said no one was physically assaulted. - The Jakarta Post/Pacific Media Watch

Article: Journalists Face Death Threats while Reporting at Migrant Workers Shelter

Pacific Media Watch

PMC's media monitoring service

Pacific Media Watch is compiled for the Pacific Media Centre as a regional media freedom and educational resource by a network of journalists, students, stringers and commentators. (cc) Creative Commons

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