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Fears for press freedom in Indonesia after magazine is sent rats, pig's head
The Straits Times
|March 24, 2025
Activists have called for press freedom to be protected in Indonesia and demanded an investigation after a magazine critical of the government was sent a pig's head and decapitated rats.
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JAKARTA -
Weekly magazine Tempo, a top Indonesian publication since the 1970s, has been critical of the policies of President Prabowo Subianto, a former general who rights groups accuse of abuses under the country's late dictator Suharto.
Cleaners at Tempo's office found a box of six rats with their heads cut off on March 22, the magazine said in a statement.
A pig's head without its ears was also found there on March 20, intended for delivery to a reporter.
"This is a dangerous and deliberate act of intimidation," Ms Beh Lih Yi, head of the Asia programme at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told AFP late on March 22.
This story is from the March 24, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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