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Indonesia lifts ban on foreign journalists
Date May 11, 2015 - 2:00AM
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has lifted a ban on foreign journalists entering Indonesia. Photo: Bullit Marquez
Indonesia's president has announced the lifting of a travel ban for foreign journalists to the country's easternmost province, a day after freeing five Papuan political prisoners.
President Joko Widodo, who took office in October, has vowed to improve human rights and economic conditions in Papua.
A low-level insurgency for independence has persisted in the region since it was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in 1963.
Widodo announced during his three-day visit to the province that the government is lifting a restriction for foreign journalists to Papua as part of his administration's efforts to stop decades of abuses by Indonesia's military and the stigma of a separatist conflict.
