Indonesia News

                  US journalist deported Last Friday, Philip Jacobson, an American environmental journalist was deported from Indonesia after six weeks of captivity. A journalist at Mongabay.com, Mr. Jacobson, had been detained on Friday 17 December, by Indonesian immigration authorities, in Palangkaraya, a city of Borneo island. He was arrested at a public meeting between lawmakers and a local chapter of Indonesia’s largest indigenous rights group. According to his lawyer Aryo Nugroho, Mr. Jacobson was sued for having a business visa instead of a journalist visa, which is required by Indonesian law. The US journalist was released, thanks to the intervention of Mohammad Mahfud MD, the Indonesian minister of political, legal and security affair, on the request of the American ambassador. The legal sentence that the journalist risked in this case was five years of jail. When released, P. Jacobson declared he was both happy and sad...