Jakarta – Some 150 Indonesian reporters accredited to the presidential palace went on strike yesterday to protest against shrinking access to information there.

The boycott followed the expulsion by presidential guards of journalists covering the arrival of ministers in the front yard of the Bina Graha, the office of President Abdurrahman Wahid, said one of the reporters.

"The yard is the only strategic place to get news from the horse's mouth, the ministers and presidential guests," said the reporter, who has been accredited to the palace for 15 years but asked not to be named.

"This is a culmination of restrictions to the right of access to information. As soon as Abdurrahman Wahid took office the press room at the palace, which had existed for 50 years, was closed and turned into an adjutants' room," the reporter said. He said unlike during previous governments, reporters had not been allowed to cover Cabinet meetings, and access to the Cabinet room entrance where ministers could be "doorstopped" for interviews was blocked by a dividing line. "This makes journalists' job more difficult because the ministers would not voluntarily come to us for interviews," he said.

The reporter said the presence of the journalists at the palace office was to the government's benefit because "what they report are basically in line with the government's interest". "We are very disappointed. Unless the government gives us full access, we'll continue the strike," he added.

Last month, Indonesia's Minister of Defence Juwono Sudarsono criticised the way the media had portrayed social conflicts, saying that they had inflamed and worsened disputes in Aceh and other provinces.

"The way TV stations – such as RCTI, SCTV and ANteve – have presented their flagrant coverage have frequently provoked the situation in the field," the minister was quoted by Antara as telling Indonesian citizens in New York last Friday. "This has happened in their coverage of the recent violence in Aceh, West Kalimantan and other provinces."

The minister observed that openness and freedom of the press were the cost democracy had to pay. But the cost was too expensive, with tension intensifying following news and comments broadcast by television stations which enjoyed the freedom of the press, the minister said.