Daily Archives: March 21, 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS --Three years in jail for five West Papua activists is a further erosion of free speech and other human rights for the province, says the Pacific Freedom Forum. There is no treason in freedom of expression shared peacefully, says PFF chair Titi Gabi, in Indonesia, or anywhere else. The five men were sentenced by judges after being convicted for a public speech. Made last October, leaders at the Third Papua Peoples Congress ended the speech with a Declaration of Independence in front of a crowd of thousands. Shortly after the activist event, three people were killed when security forces opened fire on dispersing crowds. None of the military involved have been given jail terms. Under guarantees of free speech, strong opinion must be allowed without risking unconstitutional persecution by the state, says Gabi, a Papua New Guinea journalist. "The statements which so riled the Indonesia government were made during a peaceful assembly. Matters reportedly turned ugly when the military fired guns into the crowd. An unarmed, peaceful gathering sharing political ideas can hardly be labelled as an act of terrorism." The Pacific Freedom Forum supports calls from Human Rights Watch and other groups for convictions to be dropped against the group now dubbed the Jayapura Five.

The convicted men are Selpius Bobii, a social media activist; August Sananay Kraar, public servant; Dominikus Sorabut; film maker, Edison Waromi, a former political prisoner, and Forkorus Yaboisembut, a Papua tribal leader elected president at the congress. Co-chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum, Monica Miller, says that authorities in Indonesia must "follow through on the constitutional mandate to open up public spaces for all people of West Papua to share ideas safely with each other and their leaders. Miller says an impression of widespread injustice is growing worldwide, quoting a report from the US-based Freedom House on contradictory rulings within the Indonesian legal system. Until they feel heard by their rulers and the global community, the people of Papua will continue to pay the ultimate price for trying to speak freely on their lives, says Miller. Sentencing of the five in west Papua comes as Pacific journalists prepare to attend a regional media meet in Fiji. Miller called on colleagues at the forthcoming Pacific Media Summit in Suva this month to also focus outside Fiji, on wider challenges facing freedoms of speech, including in west Papua. Journalists and the media must balance the news needs of their local markets with reporting urgent regional issues, says Miller. The continued erosion of free speech in west Papua goes against Article 19 of the 1946 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Indonesia is a signatory.--ENDS

LINKS

Pacific Media Watch ( archives and background) http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pmw-nius

Jakarta Post: Papuans found guilty of subversion, get 3-year jail terms Human Rights Watch Condemns Conviction of Papua Activists

Sydney Morning Herald: Anger greets jailing of West Papua activists

Pacific Scoop: Indonesia: Guilty Treason Verdicts For Congress Leaders Sentence Violates Human Rights Law Appeal against Papuan Congress treason convictions launched

ENDS

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PFF supports no-treason call for West Papua

By Don Jeffrey - Tue Mar 20 20:11:41 GMT 2012

Lawyers for Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor, asked a federal judge to dismiss a libel suit over an article he wrote, claiming it was accurate and protected by the Constitutions First Amendment.

Spitzers lawyers argued before U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken today in Manhattan that the article he wrote for the online magazine Slate didnt libel former Marsh & McLennan Cos. (MMC) executive William Gilman.

These sentences cant be about Mr. Gilman, Lee Levine, a lawyer for Spitzer, told the judge, referring to the part of the article Gilman claims defames him. The piece doesnt say Mr. Gilmans verdict was vacated but he was guilty anyway.

Oetken said he will rule later on the motion.

Gilman, who worked at Marsh & McLennan from 1976 to 2004, was indicted in 2005 after an investigation by then-Attorney General Spitzer over practices in the insurance industry. He and other executives were charged with a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids on insurance contracts. The state had filed a bid- rigging lawsuit against Marsh in 2004. Gilman was fired by the company, according to court papers.

After an 11-month trial without a jury, New York Supreme Court Justice James Yates found Gilman and co-defendant Edward McNenney guilty of one count of restraint of trade and competition. Yates vacated that verdict in July 2010 after ruling that certain evidence wasnt disclosed by the prosecutors to the defense. In January 2011, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to retry the men and dropped the charges against them.

In August 2010, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial critical of Spitzers investigation of Marsh & McLennan. In response, Spitzer wrote the piece for Slate the same month. In it, he noted that Marsh & McLennan agreed to pay $850 million to customers for reimbursements of premiums in connection with the investigation. He also said that unnamed Marsh executives pocketed increased fees and kickbacks.

This wasnt journalism, Jeffrey Liddle, a lawyer for Gilman, told the judge. This was an attempt to justify one person at the expense of another.

Gilman sued Spitzer and Slate Group LLC in August 2011. Slate is owned by Washington Post Co. (WPO)

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Spitzer Tells Judge Free Speech Protects Against Libel Suit