West Papuan control: How red tape, disinformation and bogus online media disrupts legitimate news sources

Abstract

Indonesia ranks 124th out of 180 countries in the 2019 Global Press Freedom Index, West Papua (meaning the two provinces of Papua and West Papua) as the most closed region to foreign media coverage. There are patterns of threats that implicate the safety and security of local journalists in the territory. A clearing house, an intricate red-tape system, was re-introduced in May 2019 to screen foreign journalists coming to the region of West Papua. Once a permit is granted, security forces supervise the selected journalists during their work in the region. Over the past 10 years, there have been two deaths, multiple assaults, arrests on local journalists and deportations of international journalists. Most of the cases remain open with no clear investigation process. Disinformation using bogus online media disrupts the work of legitimate news sources. There is no freedom of expression or freedom of information in West Papua.

Keywords

• censorship
• democracy
• freedom of expression
• harassment
• human rights
• immigration