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Medan, Indonesia – A few days before he was shot in the thigh, Indonesian journalist Mara Salem Harahap, known as Marsal, took his wife and two children on a family outing to the North Sumatra city of Medan, about two hours away. their house. During the trip, they took a family photo together and Marsal shared the photo on social media.
“It was very unusual,” Rencana Siregar told her friend and journalist friend Al Jazeera. “In the 12 years we were friends he posted almost no personal photos. He wanted to protect his family. “
Marsal, the editor-in-chief of Lasser News Today, had every reason to be cautious about a news website based in Pematangsiantar (a city with about a quarter of a million in the heart of Sumatra).
Earlier in the month, the 46-year-old woman wrote about a local nightclub in the city, accusing it of being linked to organized crime, gambling and drug trafficking. In addition to writing about the nightclub, Marsal also posted about it on his Facebook account.
“He was like my adopted brother,” Rencana said. “He came to see me two weeks before he died and we talked about his work researching the nightclub. We talked for a long time, maybe five hours. He was very persuasive when he told me he needed to be investigated and he was a tough journalist. He didn’t look scared. “
It was the last time Rencana saw Marsal.
On the evening of June 18, Marsal was shot dead in his car about 300 meters (984 feet) from his home.
Six days later, the North Sumatra police chief, Inspector Panca Putra, announced the arrest of two suspects – the owner of a nightclub under investigation by Marsal and an unidentified army official.
According to the police chief, Marsal had previously met with the owner of the nightclub and denounced the flattering media coverage.
The reason for the murder was to “teach the victim a lesson,” Panca said in a press conference last week, although it is not clear whether army officials and nightclub owners thought they were just killing Marsal or fearing him.
“The assassination of Mara Salem Harahap is the fourth case of violence against journalists in North Sumatra in the last month,” Liston Damani Medan, head of the Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), told Al Jazeera. “Cases like this and atrocities against journalists are on the rise because there is supposed to be no legal certainty for the police about these cases.”
Liston added that on May 29, unidentified assailants attempted to burn down the house of another Pematangsian journalist and on May 31, the car of a Metro TV journalist was set on fire. On June 13, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the home of the parents of a third journalist in the town of Binjai on the outskirts of Medan.
Although the AJI has no fixed data on acts of violence against journalists in North Sumatra, due to little complaints and lack of prosecution, Liston said the recent numerous attacks show the dangers facing journalists in the region. These include physical violence and legal issues such as the procedure written by the Indonesian Electronic Information and Transaction Act (UUITE).
In recent years the law has been used against journalists in recent years instead of the traditional Indonesian Press Law, it provides journalists with professional protection against slander and defamation cases and is usually consulted for the first time with the Indonesian Press Council and not directly with local police authorities.
“In addition to journalists in North Sumatra being threatened with the introduction of ITE laws, their homes are now overflowing with Molotov cocktails, supposedly by people who are not happy with their journalistic work,” Liston said.
Freedoms under fire
In neighboring Malaysia, journalists have also been found under pressure, including Tashny Sukumaran, now a senior ISIS Malaysia think-tank analyst.
He worked for 10 years as a journalist for The Star English newspaper in Malaysia and for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
“Last year I was involved in several cases related to reporting and writing, including a book on general elections when I was banned,” he told Al Jazeera. “On May 1, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, I denounced the COVID-19 ‘red zone’ attack on immigration and they both tweeted and wrote a story.”
A few days later, Tashny was told that police wanted to interrogate him under section 504 of the Communications and Multimedia Act and the Malaysian Penal Code. The phone was hijacked and has not yet been returned to him, and he had about five pages of questions about five reports. It was also Al Jazeera investigate for the documentary treatment of migrants in the first closure of the country.
“Fundamental freedoms have been in decline under the Perikatan National government since March 2020,” Nalini Elumalai, head of Malaysia’s main Article 19 program, advocates for reform of laws restricting free expression and documents violations of freedom of expression in Malaysia. said Al Jazeera.
“The government has repressed criticism of the state and state institutions, undermining the important role of public responsibility, and has sent a clear message that disagreement will not be tolerated. The media is one of the main targets of these attacks.”
Nalini added that the Malaysian authorities have persecuted, investigated, prosecuted and denied the right to access media information and that “the government’s attitude towards the independent media has been particularly aggressive, with journalists regularly facing legal harassment and threats.”
In 2021, Malaysian online newspaper fined 500,000 Malaysian ringgit ($ 120,328) reader comments Wathshlah G Naidu, executive director of the Center for Independent Journalism in Malaysia (CIJ), told Wathshlah G Naidu to Al Jazeera on his site and five journalists were called in for questioning.
Other media outlets such as China Press and Free Malaysia Today also had journalists questioned by police for reporting on them, both this year and in 2020.
“Several repressive and archaic laws were used last year against the media and journalists,” Wathshlah said. “These laws include Article 233 of the Communications and Multimedia (CMA) Act 1998, the Sedition Act 1948, Section 504 of the Criminal Code, Section 505 of the Criminal Code and the Printers and Publications (PPPA) Act 1984. Other laws include Section 203A of the Penal Code. and Section 114A of the Evidence Act of 1950. There is a tendency to channel and intimidate the media using these laws when the government is exposed in a negative light. “
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s national administration in Perikatan controlled the country in March 2020, amid the fall of the government elected two years earlier.
In January this year, Muhyddin called for an “Emergency” including the suspension of Parliament in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the government used emergency powers to conduct a search. “Fake news”The previous government had the law repealed.
“We are quite concerned about the state of media freedom in Malaysia and the authorities’ tendency to restrict access, harassment and intimidation against the media, ”Wathshlah said, noting Malaysia in its annual ranking of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). press freedom index 18 places fell to 119 (ranked from 180 countries). The previous year, he had the best ranking ever in the 101st.
Self-censorship
In the same index, Indonesia was slightly above Malaysia in 113th place, although the report also stated, “many journalists say they censor themselves for threatening an anti-blasphemy law and the‘ Electronic Information Transaction ’Act. And the Information Transaction Act).
“In 2020, when the government took advantage of the Covid-19 crisis to strengthen weapons of repression against journalists, it is now banned from publishing not only ‘false information’ related to coronavirus, but also ‘information to the president or the government.’
Rencana said the authorities need to give more support to journalists so that they can do their job without fear.
“The police need to help us, especially when our work in the pandemic is harder than usual,” he said. “How can we be professionals when we have to deal with all of these problems at once, and worry about being shot or arrested when we’re trying to do our job?”
“This is democracy, but how can democracy work in such conditions?”
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