An Indonesian court has sentenced two British journalists to short jail terms after finding them guilty of violating immigration laws by trying to make a documentary in the country without the correct visas.
A prosecutor had asked the court to jail Neil Bonner, 32, and Rebecca Prosser, 31, for five months and fine them 50m rupiah (£2,400).
But the judge on the western island of Batam handed down a lesser sentence of two-and-a-half months, saying the defendants, who have been in detention since May, had admitted their guilt and apologised.
“The defendants have been proven legally and convincingly guilty as foreigners who have violated staying permits in Indonesia,” the presiding judge, Wahyu Prasetyo Wibowo, told the packed district court.
An Indonesian lawyer for the pair said they would be released on Friday for time already served unless there was an appeal from prosecutors.
Speaking after the verdict, Bonner said: “I don’t think journalism is a crime. I think this makes it a more dangerous landscape for other journalists in Indonesia.”
Bonner and Prosser were arrested by the Indonesian navy on 28 May on the island of Batam, where they were shooting a documentary about piracy in the Malacca Straits for the London-based production company Wall to Wall, with funding from National Geographic TV.
Nine local people involved in the documentary were also arrested but released on bail two days later. They face up to two years in prison or significant fines.
A senior Indonesian navy commander, Rear Admiral Taufiqurrahman, told the Jakarta Post the scene the film-makers were shooting in the area “was not accurate and could tarnish the image of the Malacca Strait as a crime-prone area”.
Prosser and Bonner were initially held under house arrest and moved to jail on Batam island in early September.
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has previously criticised the Indonesian government’s handling of the case, arguing it was “unacceptable that journalists should be deprived of their freedom and their loved ones … over a mere bureaucratic irregularity”.
Foreign journalists are required to obtain a special visa to report in Indonesia. Recent violations have resulted in journalists being deported immediately or serving short prison terms.
The UK Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire said last week that British consular officials had visited the pair twice since their arrest, and he had raised their case with his Indonesian counterpart.
Indonesia slipped six places in RWB’s press freedom rankings this year to 138th in the world.
Last month, the country’s largest writers’ festival was forced to cancel all events dealing with the 1965 mass killings of alleged communists after threats by authorities to revoke its operating permit.
