Jakarta – Indonesia's newly-appointed Information Minister Lieutenant-General Yunus Yosfiah said today there would be no problems with media freedom if the local media was responsible and upheld their code of ethics.

"I think press freedom should be in line with the journalists' code of ethics. I am sure the media understand this. I am convinced also that the media is responsible. I think there will be no problems," Yosfiah told reporters.

"Believe me, I don't want to disappoint the media world. I will help the mass media carry out their duties and have a good relationship with the ministry," he said.

A US-based human rights group today urged new Indonesian President Jusuf Habibie to rescind the appointment of Yosfiah, a general linked to the 1975 deaths of five journalists in East Timor.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the appointment of Yosfiah, named by Habibie yesterday, was alarming.

"The CPJ is deeply alarmed to learn that the Minister of Information in your newly appointed cabinet, Lieutenant-General Yunus Yosfiah, was implicated in one of the most brutal attacks ever on journalists, the October 1975 murder of five reporters during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor," it said in a letter to Habibie.

"It is difficult to see how someone with Yosfiah's background could gain the confidence of our Indonesian colleagues, who are anxious to work in a free press environment," it said in the letter, also sent to Reuters.

"We therefore call on you to rescind the appointment of Yosfiah. We hope that you will show your commitment to press reform by naming an information minister with a history of respect for the press."

Australia says Yosfiah commanded a special forces unit responsible for killing five journalists – two Britons, two Australians and a New Zealander - in Balibao in East Timor.

The town in then independent East Timor was the target of a cross-border Indonesian raid in October 1975 ahead of the December invasion of the former Portuguese colony.

Yosfiah has never commented publicly on the incident.