H. E. Gen. Haji Mohamed Suharto
President of the Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Jakarta
Indonesia

Vienna, 20 March 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) is most concerned about the latest development in the Indonesian government’s campaign of harassment against members of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).

We are informed that two AJI journalists and one other person have been formally charged with distributing a news magazine, Independen, without a government permit. The three were among several persons linked to AJI, including AJI leaders Achmed Taufik and Liston Siregar, who were arrested by the police on 16 March after a seminar in a Jakarta hotel.

AJI was established in August 1994 by a group of Indonesian journalists after the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of the country’s three leading weeklies Tempo, Detik and Editor. The journalist’s group publishes Independen every three weeks. The news magazine, which has a circulation of about 12,000, had recently criticised government policy and focused on who will succeed President Suharto.

IPI, representing publishers, editors-in-chief and leading journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 89 countries, believes that AJI, which includes a significant number of journalists affiliated with the three banned publications, is a much needed alternative to the state-sponsored Indonesian Journalists’ Association (PWI). This latest crackdown on AJI is regarded as an attempt by the Indonesian government to crush efforts to develop a press independent of state control.

We therefore urge you to allow members of AJI to pursue their right to “seek, receive and impart information,” as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also reiterate our request that the ban on Tempo, Detik and Editor be lifted immediately.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director