Elyuddin Telaumbanua

CPJ research indicates that the following journalists have disappeared while doing their work. Although some of them are feared dead, no bodies have been found, and they are therefore not classified as "Killed." If a journalist disappeared after being held in government custody, CPJ classifies him or her as "Imprisoned" as a way to hold the government accountable for the journalist's fate.

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Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by 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 August 22.

Telaumbanua left his home in the northern town of Gunungsitoli on August 17 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.

New York, September 2, 2005—A journalist on the island of Nias off the western coast of Sumatra is missing 16 days after he left home to report on a murder. The Committee to Protect Journalists is probing the disappearance of Elyuddin Telaumbanua, a reporter for the daily Berita Sore, and called today for a thorough police investigation.

AUGUST 17, 2005
Posted: September 2, 2005

Elyuddin Telaumbanua, Berita Sore
MISSING

Telaumbanua left his house in the northern Nias town of Gunungsitoli aboard a motorcycle, taking along a tape recorder and camera. He told his wife that he would return from a reporting assignment in a few days, according to Berita Sore, a Medan-based newspaper.