About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Missing journalist case should be priority, CPJ urges

(CPJ/IFEX) - In a 27 September 2005 letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, CPJ urged him to help jumpstart the stalled police investigation into the disappearance of Elyuddin Telaumbanua, a journalist with the daily "Berita Sore" who was reported missing on the island of Nias off the northwestern coast of Sumatra on 22 August.

Telaumbanua left his home in the northern town of Gunungsitoli on 17 August for a reporting trip, promising to return home after several days, according to his wife. An editor for "Berita Sore" told local reporters that Telaumbanua may have disappeared while reporting on a murder in the island's southern Teluk Daram district. Telaumbanua, 51, had also recently reported on criminal gangs, local corruption, and irregularities in recent local elections, sources told CPJ.

Ukuran Maruhawa, a journalist traveling home with Telaumbanua, said that the two were ambushed on 22 August by a group of six men riding three motorcycles who forcibly took Telaumbanua away, "The Jakarta Post" reported. Local journalists tell CPJ they fear Telaumbanua is dead. Citing unnamed witnesses, "Berita Sore" reported that the journalist was beaten and killed by gangsters on 24 August.

In the weeks since Telaumbanua's disappearance, journalists and family members have protested to police and lawmakers, urging them to find those responsible for his disappearance. Hundreds of journalists gathered in Medan in northern Sumatra on 15 September to protest the ongoing delays in the investigation.

Police in North Sumatra announced on the following day that although they had identified a suspect, they were unable to arrest him because witnesses are unwilling to testify against the suspect out of fear for their lives, "Berita Sore" reported. A reward of 5 million rupiah (US$500) is also being offered by police to witnesses willing to testify in the case, but so far none have come forward, according to "Berita Sore".

His wife, Elisa Sederhana Harahap, also met with local lawmakers and police in Medan on 21 September to ask officials for help in locating her husband.

CPJ stressed in its letter that a free press is a cornerstone of any democracy. Journalists must be allowed to safely do their jobs with the full protection of the law. The disappearance and possible murder of a journalist in connection with his work is the worst possible violation of press freedom. Police can and must work harder to investigate the disappearance of Telaumbanua, arrest those responsible, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

CPJ urged the president to make solving the Telaumbanua case a priority.