Pacific Media Watch

An American environmental journalist accused of violating the terms of his visa has been freed after three days in jail and is likely to be deported soon, a top Indonesian government minister said, reports The New York Times.

The journalist, Philip Jacobson, 30, who works for the nonprofit news site Mongabay and is known for exposing environmental damage and corporate misconduct, was arrested on the island of Borneo after attending a public meeting between officials and indigenous leaders.

Immigration officials said he had been conducting journalistic activities while on a business visa, which was not permitted, and that he faced up to five years in prison, writes Times reporter Richard C. Paddock from Jakarta.

READ MORE: Philip Jacobson articles for Mongabay

The Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mohammad Mahfud MD, met on Friday with the United States ambassador to Indonesia, Joseph R. Donovan. He told reporters afterward that the case would be handled as an administrative matter punishable by deportation, not as a crime.

The minister set no timetable for deporting Jacobson and indicated that the authorities were still investigating whether he had broken any laws. Since his release on Friday, Jacobson has been free to move around the city of Palangkaraya, where he was arrested, but not to travel outside the city.

“We will try to just deport him soon if he didn’t commit any other crime,” Mahfud said.

A State Department spokesman said the United States Embassy in Jakarta had been in frequent communication with Jacobson since he was first contacted by Indonesian immigration authorities and that it was following his case closely.

Moved from jail
A story posted on Mongabay’s website said that Jacobson had been moved from the jail, where he had shared a cell with five other prisoners, to “city detention”.

“We are grateful that authorities have made this accommodation and remain hopeful that Phil’s case can be treated as an administrative matter rather than a criminal one,” said Mongabay’s founder and chief executive, Rhett A. Butler.

Indonesia requires visiting foreign journalists to obtain a journalist visa, a cumbersome and lengthy process that allows the authorities to question an applicant’s reporting plan, deny a visa without explanation or take no action at all.

Jacobson was initially detained on December 17 and ordered to remain in Palangkaraya.

On Tuesday, the immigration authorities arrested him and put him in jail, signaling that he could face criminal charges.

Jacobson’s reports for Mongabay include an article about a paper company that he said had illicitly set up a shell company to secretly clear forest in Borneo, and another that analysed the environmental record of Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo.

Arvin Gumilang, a spokesman for Indonesia’s immigration department, said Jacobson had visited Indonesia several times on a business visa, and that he had been arrested after being reported to the authorities by an interviewee.

Disturbing case
He was not arrested because of any articles published by Mongabay, Gumilang added.

Rights activists said Jacobson’s case was disturbing and highlighted the need for Indonesia to loosen restrictions on journalists.

“This arbitrary arrest is an unacceptable attack on freedom of the press in the country,” said Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, Usman Hamid.

“Respect for the right to freedom of expression is a pillar of any rights-respecting society, whether it is holding institutions to account or highlighting environmental concerns.”

Dera Menra Sijabat contributed reporting to this Times story.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A Mongabay video message to supporters of the US journalist Philip Jacobson arrested in Indonesia.

By Michael Andrew in Jakarta

International journalists and agencies have condemned the arrest of American environmental journalist Philip Jacobson, who has been detained in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, for allegedly misusing his residency permit.

The reporter and editor of Mongabay, a United States-based environmental news website, was detained on Tuesday after being placed under city-arrest for more than a month while immigration officials investigated his alleged visa violations.

Arrested under Article 122 of the 2011 Immigration Law, Jacobson, 30, could be subjected to a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to Rp 500 million (US$36,556) if convicted of the charges.

READ MORE: Indonesia arrests Mongabay editor

Paris-based international media freedom agency Reporters without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement denouncing the arrest as an act of intimidation.

“The Central Kalimantan immigration officials have massively overstepped their powers. We call on the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, which oversees the Directorate General of Immigration, to ensure that this journalist is immediately released in accordance with the rule of law,” the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, Daniel Bastard, said in a press release on Wednesday.

RSF said it had contacted Jacobson in Palangkaraya in early January before his arrest. Jacobson told the agency immigration officials were “carrying out an investigation” into his case and that he had done nothing more than attend a public meeting.

The director of the New Zealand-based Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, called the punitive measures against Jacobson unjustifiable and unacceptable.

‘Untold damage’
“This slow detention then arrest of one of the world’s leading environmental journalists will do untold damage to Indonesia’s reputation on media issues and democracy,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“The issue of a business visa is merely a technicality and can be solved bureaucratically. The reason why some journalists have other types of visas is because of the secretive and red-tape-mired processes applying to foreign journalists visiting the country.”

Dr Robie, covenor of the PMC’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project, said the type of journalism carried out by Jacobson and Mongabay were vital for confronting “the existential crisis of our time”.

“By arresting journalists, authorities clearly are wanting to bury their heads in the ground and refuse to face the facts and truth. Journalists like Jacobson, who has a highly respected track record as an environmental journalist, should be lauded not hounded.”

Other journalists and environmental activists have taken to social media to voice their support of Jacobson with the hashtag #freephilipjacobson circulating on Twitter.

In a tweet, Sydney-based Indonesian sustainable forests executive Aida Greenbury called Jacobson an honest, passionate and dedicated journalist.

“He has been arrested. Indonesia: we are better than this. Revealing the truth is not a crime,” she tweeted.

Important work
The Australian’s Southeast Asia correspondent Amanda Hodge tweeted that “Jacobson had done some of the most important work in Indonesia on [the] intersection of corruption [and the] environment.”

“The long-form pieces he’s written/ helped produce w @gekkoprojekt are essential reading. His arrest is deeply disturbing #freephilipjacobson.”

The Indonesian Journalists’ Safety Committee has also weighed in on the issue, calling the arrest of Jacobson an excessive measure that tarnished Indonesia’s democracy.

“The excessive actions against Jacobson call into question the government’s motives and should not reflect authorities’ allergy to criticism and oversensitivity toward his investigations on the environment for Mongabay.”

It called for Jacobson’s immediate release and for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to guarantee the protection of journalists working in Indonesia and “of the transparency of information and access of foreign journalists to cover in Indonesia on the basis of press freedom, freedom of information and human rights.”

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2019 democracy index, Indonesia’s democracy has not climbed from its position of 64th of 167 countries.

Press freedom is also languishing with Indonesia ranked 124th of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index, above Uganda and below Malaysia.

This article is republished from The Jakarta Post. The author, Michael Andrew, a former Pacific Media Watch contributing editor, is an intern with the Post under the ACICIS programme.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

Philip Jacobson, an award-winning editor for the non-profit environmental science news outlet Mongabay, has been arrested for an alleged visa violation in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, after being put under city arrest for a month.

Jacobson, 30, was first detained on 17 December 2019 after attending a hearing between the Central Kalimantan parliament and the local chapter of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), Indonesia’s largest indigenous rights advocacy group.

He had travelled to the city shortly after entering Indonesia on a business visa for a series of meetings.

READ MORE: Mongabay environmental headlines

The day he was due to leave, immigration authorities seized his passport, interrogated him for four hours and ordered him to remain in the city pending their investigation.

On January 21, more than a month later, Jacobson was formally arrested and taken into custody. He was informed that he faces charges of violating the 2011 immigration law and a prison sentence of up to five years.

He is now being held at a prison in Palangkaraya.

“We are supporting Philip in this on-going case and making every effort to comply with Indonesia’s immigration authorities,” said Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler.

‘Punitive action’
“I am surprised that immigration officials have taken such punitive action against Philip for what is an administrative matter.”

Jacobson’s arrest comes shortly after Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting rising violence against activists and environmentalists in Indonesia, and amid a growing sense that critical voices are being suppressed.

“Journalists and people employed by journalism organisations should be free to work in Indonesia without fear of arbitrary detention,” said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch, who knows Jacobson and understands his case.

“Philip Jacobson’s treatment is a worrying sign that the government is cracking down on the kind of work that is essential to the health of Indonesian democracy.”

Last month, the Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) issued a report documenting 53 incidents of abuse against journalists – including five criminal cases – in 2019.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz