JAYAPURA (Tabloid Jubi/Pacific Media Watch): Journalists were banned from covering the arrest of protesters supporting the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and who were the detained in the Mobile Brigade Command headquarters in Kotaraja, Jayapura, this week.
Reporters saw hundreds of protesters being grouped on the compound, asked to remove their clothes and footwear and stand in the sun at noon last Monday.
Police officers who guarded the headquarters gate, about 10meters high, prevented media crews, including a Tabloidjubi.com reporter, entering the compound.
About 20 officers stood guard outside of the gate holding wooden batons and ordering people to stop.
They also prohibited journalists from taking photos of the arrested protesters.
One of the officers said they were acting on "a direct order" from Mobile Brigade Unit chief of Papua Police, Senior Police Commissioner Mathius Fakhiri.
"The point is Chief Fakhiri ordered us to ban people, particularly journalists, from covering this," said Mobile Brigade officer Romansyah when asked by Jubi at the checkpoint on Monday.
The protesters were detained in several locations, including Expo, Perumnas 3 Waena and Lingkaran Abe, before taken by police trucks to the compound of Mobile Brigade Command headquarters.
A journalist for suarapapua.com, Ardi Bayage, was also arrested by the police and taken together with detained demonstrators to Mobile Brigade headquarters.
Even when he showed his press card, police accused him of lying.
His mobile phone was smashed by police. He was detained for several hours in Mako Brimob before being released.
Extensive coverage of the mass arrests on Asia Pacific Report
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3
Pacific Media Watch
