Reporters Sans Frontieres: Why Indonesia should release two detained French journalists
HELD since early August, Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois are to go on trial next week
After holding French journalists Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois in the eastern province of Papua for 70 days, the Indonesian authorities announced yesterday that they will be tried on a charge of misusing an entry visa, which carries a possible five-year jail sentence.
The authorities decided to go ahead with a trial in Papua’s capital, Jayapura, on 20 October despite many international calls for their release, including a petition launched by Reporters Without Borders and the Bourrat and Dandois support committee that has been signed by more than 8,000 people worldwide.
Reporters Without Borders appeals to the Indonesian justice system, now responsible for their continuing detention, to release the two journalists and dismiss all charges.
Click on the photo to continue reading the RSF communique.
(FILES) In this file photograph taken on August 28, 2014, arrested French journalists Thomas Dandois (R), 40, and Valentine Bourrat (L), 29, from Franco-German television channel Arte are photographed at the Indonesian immigration office in Jayapura city in Papua province on August 28, 2014. The two French journalists arrested in Indonesia’s Papua while reporting on the separatist movement are likely to go on trial, their lawyer said September 2, 2014, with the pair facing up to five years in jail. AFP PHOTO / FILES / From RSF website