Citizen Media and Civil Resistance in West Papua
ENDANGERED JOURNALISTS
social media and yet we take no notice. We have a moral obligation to
speak for those who are not allowed to talk. We must be the eyes for those
who are blindfolded. Again, Papua New Guinea, as a regional leader, must
lead these discussions with our friends in a mature and engaging manner.
Then, on 10 May 2015, Indonesian President Joko Widowo issued a surprise
announcement: foreign journalists would be free to visit West Papua. Unfor-
tunately, Jokowi's statement was not backed up by a Presidential Decree or any
other legal mechanism that might give the 'new' policy certainty. Less than 24
hours after Jokowi's statement the Minister for Security and Political Affairs,
Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, told the Indonesian media that the nothing had changed,
journalists would still need permission from various government agencies. That
permission involves navigating an 'interagency clearance house supervised by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and involving 18 working units from 12 differ-
ent ministries, including the National Police and the State Intelligence Agency'
(Human Rights Watch, 2015, pp. 1-2). This can take months for many journal-
ists and often ends in rejection. Indonesian military commander General Moe-
ldoko confirmed Purdijanto's statement separately, saying that the previous
rules remained. Papuan police also announced that foreign journalists would
still be required to report to them and that their activities would be monitored.
As long as the Indonesian government values propaganda over a free press, the
battle for open access to West Papua will be ongoing. The Surat Jalan system,
the architecture through which the police and intelligence services try to moni-
tor foreign visitors, remains in place.
Denying access is hurting the Indonesian government's reputation. Besides,
social media is making it impossible to enforce. The challenge for the movement
is to use citizen media activism more effectively, to extensively cover the geo-
graphic expanse of Papua, to record and disseminate accurate data, and to upskill
the movement more systematically, in order to promote and direct moral outrage.
Resurgence of the diplomatic struggle
On the diplomatic level Papuans also continue to organise employing both hu-
man rights mechanisms through the UN Human Rights Council and political
mechanisms through international forums. There is also ongoing exploration of
the possibilities of legal challenges to Indonesian sovereignty. In addition, Pap-
uan churches are renewing their links with the Pacific Conference of Churches.
In a game-changing intervention, the Vanuatu government, Council of Churches
and the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs, brought together West Papuan
leaders to Port Vila in November 2014 to reconcile and unify (MacLeod, 2015).
Assisted by a team from the Pacific Conference of Churches the West Papuans
agreed to form the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), an
PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 22 (1) 2016 49View entire presentation