Indonesian paper gets mutilated animal carcass
JAKARTA—Press freedom groups have called on Indonesian authorities to investigate what they called acts of intimidation against a magazine known for its hard-hitting investigative reporting, after it was twice sent mutilated animal carcasses last week.
Tempo Magazine, a publication that was twice banned when Indonesia was under authoritarian rule decades ago, was sent a pig’s head on Wednesday and six headless rats three days later, it said on Monday.
It is not immediately clear who sent the packages and Tempo said they came without messages or claims of responsibility. “This terror act is terrifying,” its deputy editor in chief Bagja Hidayat told Reuters.
“This message isn’t just for Tempo but all reporters in Indonesia.”
Bagja said Tempo received a message on its Instagram account after receiving the pig’s head, which said “terror” would not stop.
Editor-in-chief Setri Yasra said the incidents had been reported to Indonesia’s main human rights body, but Tempo did not suspect any specific organization of sending the packages as it published critical investigations every week.
Press freedom and rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Alliance of Independent Journalists, decried the act and called for a police investigation. The national police did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment.
On Sunday, a senior police official was quoted by media as saying they were investigating the incidents. Beh Lih Yi, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Tempo was the victim of a deliberate act of intimidation.
