An American journalist arrested and deported last year by Indonesian authorities has received an award for his commitment to reporting environmental issues.
Philip Jacobson, the editor of Mongabay, an environmental news site, received an Oktovianus Pogau Award from the Pantau Foundation, a Jakarta-based journalist training organization, on Jan. 31. “The Pantau Foundation sees Philip Jacobson’s struggle in line with the vision of the Oktovianus Pogau Award, which wants to foster courage in journalism in line with our goal of improving the quality of journalism in Indonesia,” the foundation said in a statement. The award was launched in 2017 to honor a young Papuan journalist and activist, Oktovianus Pogau, who died from lung disease at 23 and was known for his strong commitment to exposing rights abuses in Papua. Jacobson led a number of collaborative reports with local journalists on forest destruction issues in the Indonesian regions of Kalimantan and Papua. He made global headlines in December 2019 when he was arrested as he was about to attend a meeting between the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN) and the Central Kalimantan Provincial Parliament in Palangka Raya.
He was charged with entering Indonesia without a journalist visa, resulting in him being detained for 45 days before being deported in January 2020. Alexander Mering, one of the Pantau Foundation judges, said Jacobson “encourages all of us to fight harder against the confiscation of ancestral land or forests, both by oil palm plantation and mining companies.” He added: “We respect Jacobson’s struggles and difficulties. He did not quit, he did not submit to pressure, he was not afraid of prison bars.”
Andreas Harsono, Human Rights Watch’s Indonesia researcher who was also a judge, said Jacobson was the first foreigner to receive the Oktovianus Pogau Award.
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Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
