By and large, Indonesia has been a wonderful host of the 2018 Asian Games. But some foreign journalists may have a few bad things to say about their experience here after having their belongings stolen.
According to Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (Inasgoc) Media and Public Relations Director Danny Buldansyah, there were two cases of theft involving foreign journalists in the past week. The first, which happened on Monday, involved a local journalist stealing a foreign journalist’s laptop. A CCTV recording of the incident showed the latter swiping the laptop while the former had their attention turned elsewhere.
“The thief turned out to be a journalist for an Indonesian mass media company,” Danny told Suara today.
The culprit reportedly wasn’t reported to the police, but had their press accreditations for the Asian Games revoked.
“We have taken their access, we have ejected them. The culprit apologized profusely,” Danny said.
Another case, one in which police did get involved, involved another foreign journalist’s locker being broken into and their tele-camera lens getting stolen on Thursday evening.
“The police are helping. We are still investigating,” Danny said.
The 2018 Asian Games concludes on September 2 with a closing ceremony which will be held at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium in Jakarta. To Indonesia’s credit as host country, the games have been largely scandal-free so far as we sadly near its end.
