Journalist ordered to leave Indonesia’s Papua over tweets

JAKARTA: A BBC journalist on a reporting trip to cover a health and malnutrition crisis in Indonesia´s easternmost area of Papua was forced to leave the province after the country´s military said tweets she sent on her trip had “hurt soldiers´ feelings”.

Papua is one of Indonesia´s poorest areas and President Joko Widodo after coming to power in 2014 pledged to speed up its development and ease media restrictions in the area, where there has been a simmering secessionist movement. But while investment has risen and efforts made to address some human rights concerns, activists say foreign journalists continue to be blocked or face obstacles when trying to report.

Indonesia´s military said in a statement that a tweet sent by Rebecca Henschke, BBC Indonesia´s editor, had “hurt the feelings of TNI (Indonesian military) personnel” involved in relief efforts in the Asmat area. Henschke had tweeted a photo of supplies on her personal Twitter account, adding: “This is the aid coming in for severely malnourished children in Papua - instant noodles, super sweet soft drinks and biscuits.

“Papua military spokesman Colonel Muhammad Aidi said: “(The food and drink) that she took the picture of at the speedboat pier are not donations or aid. It was merchandise from merchants that was incidentally there. “ Aidi also described two other tweets as misleading. Henschke, a Jakarta-based Australian citizen, later took down the photograph and tweeted: “Adding important NOTE: Other sources say this is NOT aid but normal supplies. Huge relief effort underway here. “Indonesia has deployed additional military personnel to help in Asmat, where at least 61 infants are reported to have died from malnutrition and diseases such as measles.