Firebombing of news organisation in Indonesia’s Papua region condemned as assault on ‘media freedom’

By Pizaro Gozali Idrus, BenarNews

An attack on the editorial office of Papua-based media outlet Jubi on Wednesday using Molotov cocktails set fire to vehicles but resulted in no casualties, Indonesian police said.

The latest targeting of journalists in the Indonesian province has been condemned by human rights groups as a renewed assault on media freedom, after previous attacks remained unsolved by police.

Jubi is owned by Victor Mambor, who is a Jayapura-based stringer for BenarNews.

Heram Sectoral Police Chief Inspector Bernadus Ick confirmed an investigation is underway.

"These were indeed Molotov cocktails thrown at the Jubi editorial office," Bernadus said in a press release, adding that forensic analysis of the materials used in the bombs is underway.

Jubi's editor-in-chief, Jean Bisay, said the attackers on a motorcycle threw incendiary devices from the road in front of the Jubi office in Jayapura, igniting a fire between two parked vehicles.

"The flames briefly engulfed the front of both vehicles before being extinguished by two Jubi employees and several eyewitnesses," Bisay told BenarNews.

Witnesses told BenarNews the assailants had passed by the Jubi premises several times on Tuesday evening, stopping to observe the office, before departing and returning at 3:15am to throw two objects.

They said two individuals, who were dressed in black and on a motorcycle, appeared panicked and struggled to start their getaway vehicle when trying to flee.

The Jayapura-based Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI), led by Lucky Ireeuw, said in a statement to BenarNews it "considers this terror a serious threat to media freedom in Papua."

"The terror faced by Jubi and journalists in Papua has occurred repeatedly but remains unresolved to this day," he added.

AJI's 2023 annual report on the state of Indonesia's media detailed 89 attacks against journalists and media organisations last year, the highest number in a decade.

In January 2023, Mambor, a veteran reporter known for covering rights abuses in heavily militarised Papua, said he was targeted in a bomb attack outside his home in Jayapura. No one was injured in the explosion.

Reporters Without Borders' annual World Press Freedom Index 2024 said the Indonesian military "carefully prevent the media from covering their use of force to suppress separatist protests in the three provinces that make up Papua, which continues to be an information blackhole where journalists cannot work."

Gustaf Kawer, director of the Papua Human Rights Lawyers Association (PAHAM), urged the police to apprehend the individuals responsible and warned that otherwise it could lead to similar attacks.

"If left unsolved, the public will wonder who is behind it. Are they outsiders or part of the authorities? I believe it is essential to clarify the perpetrators to prevent future incidents and ensure that the press can operate freely," he said.

Frits Ramandey, head of the Papua Provincial Human Rights Commission, who also visited the crime scene, said similar incidents targeted local journalists in 2021 and 2023.

"If this is not addressed, the police will be complicit in allowing terror to occur everywhere," he said

Papua, a region at the far-eastern end of Indonesia, has been the site of armed conflict for decades, driven by a desire for independence among some of its citizens. In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua, which was also a former Dutch colony, and subsequently annexed the region.

Papua was officially incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a United Nations-sponsored referendum. However, many locals and activists have condemned this referendum as a sham, as it involved only about 1,000 participants.

Despite these concerns, the UN accepted the results, endorsing Jakarta's governance of the region.

-This article was first published by BenarNews