An environmental journalist who grew up in Lincoln Park and graduated from Northwestern University was on his way back to the United States on Friday after a stint in an Indonesian prison for allegedly violating his visa.
Philip Jacobson, 31, was working as an editor for the California-based environmental science website Mongabay when he was arrested January 21 in the city of Palangkaraya on the island of Borneo.
The case against him centered on Jacobson’s use of a business visa instead of a journalism visa.
“It’s good to be out of prison, and I’m relieved the prospect of a five-year jail sentence is no longer something I have to contemplate,” Jacobson said in a statement posted on Mongabay’s website.
Jacobson was first detained and interrogated Dec. 17 after attending a hearing at parliament between government officials and the local chapter of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, Indonesia’s largest indigenous rights advocacy group.
Authorities released him but ordered him not to leave the city pending the outcome of their investigation, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler told the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this month.
Jacobson was arrested about four weeks later and spent three days in prison before authorities released him Jan. 24 and ordered him to be deported.
His arrest spurred an international outcry calling for his release.
“Phil was at the meeting to learn about the issues; he was invited. He was working with a local journalist who is doing a story for Mongabay about small farmers using fire to clear land, which can cause severe air pollution,” Butler said.
“Phil wasn’t on a specific assignment and, as far as we know, there are no allegations of him doing journalistic interviews, but there could be some debate over what constitutes journalism. I think it would be more clear-cut if he was out in the field interviewing people” Butler said.
Butler didn’t know why Jacobson didn’t have a journalism visa, but said such visas are very hard to get.
Jacobson attended the University of Chicago Lab Schools before graduating from Northwestern in 2011 with a degree in journalism. Jacobson’s first job after graduating was with the Jakarta Globe.
Jacobson splits time between Southeast Asia, the United States and Indonesia.
