Ersa Siregar

Indonesia

Indonesians made history in 2004 by voting in democratic elections for Parliament in April and the presidency in July and September. But a natural catastrophe of unprecedented scope cast a pall over the archipelago nation in late December, when a tsunami killed at least 115,000 people.

New York, May 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of Fery Santoro, a cameraman for Indonesia’s privately owned Rajawali Citra Televisi (RCTI) television station, on Sunday, May 16.

Santoro was taken hostage by the Free Aceh Movement (known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM) in June 2003 along with RCTI senior reporter Ersa Siregar, their driver, and two Indonesian officers’ wives. The kidnapping occurred after a massive Indonesian military offensive was launched in the war-torn northwest Aceh Province on May 19 to crush the long-running GAM separatist insurgency there.

New York, January 2, 2004—A total of 36 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work in 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This is a sharp increase from 2002, when 19 journalists were killed. The war in Iraq was the primary reason for the increase, as 13 journalists, more than a third of this year's casualties, were killed in hostile actions.

In fact, according to CPJ's statistics, the death toll in Iraq was the highest annual total from a single country since 24 journalists were killed in Algeria in 1995 at the height of civil strife between the government and Islamist militants.

New York, December 29, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for a full investigation into the death of Ersa Siregar, a senior reporter for the private Indonesian channel Rajawali Citra Televisi (RCTI), who was shot and killed today during a gun battle between Indonesian military forces and separatist rebels in the war-torn Aceh Province, according to RCTI chief editor Derek Manangka.

New York, October 7, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of journalists Ersa Siregar and Ferry Santoro, who have been held hostage by rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (known by its Indonesian acronym GAM) for more than three months. Their current whereabouts are unknown, and Siregar is reportedly in poor health.

"We call on GAM leaders to release Siregar and Santoro immediately and without conditions," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "After three months, we have seen no progress in negotiations between GAM and the Indonesian government. Both sides must now act swiftly and decisively to ensure the hostages' return to safety."

“Press conditions in Aceh are going from bad to worse.” New York, July 7, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent assault on radio reporter Alif Imam Nurlambang by Indonesian security officers in the northwestern province of Aceh, where a massive Indonesian military offensive is under way to crush a long-running separatist insurgency. Meanwhile, CPJ is also outraged by the ongoing detention of an Indonesian television crew by the rebel Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym as GAM.

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the safety of journalists Ersa Siregar and Ferry Santoro, who went missing over the weekend while reporting on the conflict in the northwestern province of Aceh for the private Indonesian television channel RCTI.

Colleagues said that the two were last heard from at around 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, when Siregar called an RCTI reporter in the town of Lhokseumawe, in northern Aceh, to say they were on the way there from Langsa, a town in the eastern part of the province. Siregar, a senior reporter for RCTI, said he and Santoro, an RCTI cameraman, should arrive in Lhokseumawe by around 8:00 p.m. that night. The two, along with their driver, Rahmatsyah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, were traveling in a Toyota Kijang minivan, according to news reports.