{"id":261632,"date":"2021-08-03T11:40:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T11:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=61396"},"modified":"2021-08-03T11:40:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T11:40:14","slug":"open-season-again-for-indonesian-military-trolls-and-fake-news-campaign-on-west-papua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/03\/open-season-again-for-indonesian-military-trolls-and-fake-news-campaign-on-west-papua\/","title":{"rendered":"Open season again for Indonesian military trolls and \u2018fake news\u2019 campaign on West Papua"},"content":{"rendered":"
SPECIAL REPORT:<\/strong> By David Robie<\/em><\/p>\n It is open season again for Indonesian trolls targeting Asia Pacific Report<\/em><\/a> and other media with fake news and disinformation dispatches in a crude attempt to gloss over human rights violations.<\/p>\n Just three months ago I wrote about this issue in my \u201cDear editor\u201d article<\/a> exposing the disinformation campaign. There was silence for a while but now the fake letters to the editor \u2013 and other media outlets — have started again in earnest.<\/p>\n The latest four lengthy letters emailed to APR<\/em> canvas the following topics — Jakarta\u2019s controversial special autonomy status revised law for Papua, a brutal assault by Indonesian Air Force military policemen<\/a> on a deaf Papuan man, and a shooting incident allegedly committed by pro-independence rebels \u2013 and they appear to have been written from a stock template.<\/p>\n And they all purport to have been written by \u201cPapuan students\u201d or \u201cPapuans\u201d. Are they their real names, and do they even exist?<\/p>\n The latest letter to Asia Pacific Report<\/em>, dated July 30, was written by a \u201cPaulus Ndiken” who claims:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a native Papuan currently living in Merauke, Papua, Indonesia. I would like to address your cover story about Indonesia apologises for ‘excessive force’ against deaf Papuan man.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day after the incident, the Indonesian Air Force had detained and punished severely 2 members \u2026 that had roughly apprehending [sic] Esebius Bapaimu in Merauke, Papua province.\u201d<\/p>\n\n