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Alert

Six months in jail for radio station manager who covered rights violations in China

(RSF/IFEX) – 7 September 2011 – Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the sentence of six months in prison and the suspended sentence of another year in prison that a court in the city of Batam passed yesterday on Gatot Machali, the manager of Batam-based Radio Era Baru, on a charge of broadcasting without permission and disrupting neighbouring frequencies.

Another three months will be added to Machali's jail sentence if he is unable to pay the fine of 50 million rupees (5,800 US dollars) which the court also imposed.

Reporters Without Borders wrote today to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Minister of Law and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar asking them to intercede on behalf of Machali, whose conviction is believed to be the result of Chinese government pressure over the station's broadcasts in Chinese about human rights violations in China.

Read the letter