Journalists jailed in Malaysia, detained by Indonesian soldiers

Journalists in foreign countries often risk their lives and freedom to cover stories in countries that do not embrace free press rights.

One reporter who has covered the actions of an unfriendly government has ended up in jail recently, and others have even been killed while gathering the news.

JOURNALIST RELEASED AFTER ONE MONTH IN MALAYSIAN JAIL

Far Eastern Economic Review bureau chief Murray Hiebert, the first journalist in the 50-year history of the Commonwealth of Malaysia to be jailed for writing a story, was released on Oct. 11 after spending a month behind bars in a jail near Kuala Lumpur.

“My spirits are in good shape, and I managed to come out in one piece,” Hiebert told Reuters in a telephone call from Hong Kong shortly after his release.

“I believed in freedom of the press before. I believe in it even more strongly now.”

The Canadian-born Hiebert was convicted of contempt of court for writing a 1997 story about Malaysia’s increasingly litigious society. Hiebert’s “See You In Court” story highlighted a $2.4 million civil lawsuit filed by the wife of a prominent appeals court judge on behalf of their teenage son against the Kuala Lumpur International School. Chandra Sri Ram claimed that the school had unfairly dropped her son from the debate team.

Hiebert’s article quoted a lawyer who noted that the case — though settled before trial — moved quickly through the court system. Chandra Sri Ram filed a complaint, charging that Hiebert’s story was an attack on the judiciary.

The appeals court judges agreed, saying that the story “scandalized” the Malaysian court system. The appeals court in early September upheld Hiebert’s conviction, but reduced his sentence from three months to six weeks. He was released after a month for good behavior.

Hiebert, who spent the last two years in Malaysia, has been assigned to the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Far Eastern Economic Review, a Dow Jones business weekly.

JOURNALIST HELD CAPTIVE IN EAST TIMOR TESTIFIES ABOUT FIGHTING

Hours after arriving in the United States following his expulsion from East Timor, freelance journalist Allan Nairn appeared before a House of Representatives subcommittee in late September and spelled out in detail what he said was the U.S. involvement in the destruction of East Timor.

Nairn told members of the International Operations and Human Rights subcommittee that many of the Indonesian-backed militia groups that terrorized and killed hundreds of East Timorese residents in the wake of the Aug. 30 vote for independence from Indonesia were armed and trained in the United States.

Nairn, who wrote about U.S. complicity in East Timor for The Nation magazine, was arrested in East Timor in early September during the height of the anti-independence fighting.

He was held captive and questioned by the Indonesian government for several days before he was expelled from the country.

Days later, Dutch freelance journalist Sander Thoenes, 30, was killed in an attack by armed militia as he rode on a motorcycle through a suburb of Dili, the capital city of East Timor.

An Indonesian journalist also was killed, along with nine members of a religious order who were bringing in relief supplies to the ravaged residents in the countryside.

And in a separate attack, a British journalist and American photographer were ambushed by the militia near Dili. They were rescued by peace-keeping forces after spending a night in the bushes and were not seriously injured.