John Aglionby – "Ferry Bebas" (Ferry is Free) was all Media Indonesia needed as its main headline on Monday to tell its readers the news.
Anyone who had been following Indonesian current affairs knew immediately it referred to Ferry Santoro, a news cameraman from a private television station who'd been taken hostage last June, along with the reporter Ersa Siregar, by the separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gam).
All the papers gave the story pages of coverage for days, with many highlighting the need for journalists to continue covering the decades-long conflict in the northern tip of Sumatra.
As Media Indonesia said in a front-page editorial: "Ferry's freedom should reinforce journalists' motivation and bravery to continue their profession in Aceh or other conflict zones. For journalists have no choice but to continue to truthfully report every event that happens and even more so from war zones.
Because in war the first casualty is the truth and so journalists must seek the truth that is different to the truth claimed by the combatants." It finished with a national appeal: "It is now the time to build the truth together; so the Acehnese can be saved from even greater destruction ... and [Aceh can] become a paradise for its people."
That was a reference to one of the other big stories of the week: the government's decision to end a year of martial law in Aceh, and declare it to be at civil emergency status. President Megawati Sukarnoputri claimed the move was justified because a significant blow had been dealt to GAM. But the media were not convinced life would be that different for the Acehnese, particularly because their new ruler, the civilian governor, is accused of myriad corruption offences.
"Abdullah Puteh to be in charge of the civil emergency in Aceh" was Koran Tempo's banner headline on Wednesday, which probably took many of its readers aback. The day before, Jakarta's main evening paper, Suara Pembaruan, had been unable to conceal its contempt for the man or the cosmetic nature of the change of status.
"As long as the legal system does not process the accusations [of corruption, collusion and nepotism] that have been levelled against Mr Puteh, especially now he has taken over control of the operational budget for the civil emergency status in Aceh, the new situation will not result in civil order," it said. "No one should feel proud that martial law has been changed to a civil emergency, because both are equally repressive. There is no difference!"
Against this backdrop, the run-up to Indonesia's first-ever presidential election, to be held on July 5, continued to gather momentum. This week saw the deadline for the registration of candidates and the probable immediate disqualification of the former president Abdurrahman Wahid, on account of his virtual blindness.
Indonesia's leading newspaper, Kompas, ran an exclusive on that subject on Saturday. It quoted Mr Wahid's daughter, Yenny, as saying the election commission had sent them a letter to say he would be disqualified. "But they're not brave enough to announce whether this will really happen or not," she reportedly said.
The Jakarta Post, the nation's main English-language newspaper, looked at the issue from a broader perspective. It observed that the parties were, for the most part, nominating candidates from the military and the former dictator Suharto's party.
"It is not our intention to denigrate any of the six pairings as contenders," it said. "At present they are the best candidates the political parties can be expected to field. However for the sake of the nation's future, all necessary steps must be taken to ensure that the grooming of future leaders will take properly at all levels of the nation's social and political life."
Indonesia's sporting woes grabbed the headlines after poor performances in the Thomas and Uber Cups, the top international badminton team competitions. No pundit could remember when Indonesia last did so badly in a sport it used to dominate.
Tempo magazine blamed the five years of economic crisis and government apathy. "Perhaps matters of sport should be left to the people," it said.
"The government can just give encouragement and motivation, for example by building necessary sports facilities. What is happening now is that the government is taking over land that the people use for sport. Football fields have become shopping centres, not only in large cities but even in provincial towns."