West Papua Information Kit

Free Speech Restrictions

5 September 1963

Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 5 (Reuter) - West Irian (former Netherland New Guinea) has been declared a "quarantine territory" and visitors to the province must have permission from Foreign Minister Subandrio, who is also Minister for West Irian Affairs, the Government said. No reason was given for the measure.

2000 - 2005

United States Dept. of State human rights reports.

2nd December 2000

Veteran Swiss journalist Oswald Iten was arrested by police in Jayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya (also known as West Papua), after he took pictures of an independence demonstration staged by Papuan activists. Iten, a correspondent for the business newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung, was detained for 11 days in dangerous and miserable conditions, threatened with prosecution for violating visa restrictions, and finally deported.

17 February 2006

International Federation of Journalists concerned that barring foreign media from West Papua is an attempt to conceal human rights abuses

14 February 2008

US letter to United Nations

25 March 2009

Dutch journalists detained in Papua province Four Dutch journalists, among them NRC Handelsblad's correspondent Elske Schouten were detained on Tuesday while covering a protest in the Indonesian province of Papua.
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