American journalist Philip Jacobson was deported from Indonesia on Friday, more than six weeks after authorities detained him for an alleged visa violation. A Mongabay journalist since 2015, Jacobson has published several stories about corruption and environmental abuses by Indonesia’s lucrative palm oil industry. His detention focused attention on the troubling state of press freedom in Indonesia, the most populous nation in Southeast Asia. “It’s tragic that an American environmentalist who dedicated his energies to protecting Indonesia’s rain forests and indigenous people has been treated so poorly by the Indonesian authorities,” Harsono said. “Authorities should be thanking Jacobson for his environmental work, not punishing him for it.”

Source: Los Angeles Times January 31, 2020 19:27 UTC