President Megawati Sukarnoputri sought to reassure Indonesia's media that it would remain unshackled despite claims her government was putting the squeeze on free speech.

"Have I ever tried to shackle the press?" Megawati was quoted as saying by Indonesian Broadcasting Commission chief Victor Menayang after she met commission members at the state palace.

Megawati last year successfully sued the Jakarta-based Rakyat Merdeka (Free People) newspapers for "publicly insulting" her in several of its front page headlines. An editor with the paper has received a suspended jail term.

The government in June expelled US analyst Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group, after she reported on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group in Indonesia and separatist movements in Aceh and Papua.

Megawati denies she ordered Jones' expulsion, insisting the decision was a state procedure.

Indonesia's media was tightly controlled during the 32-year autocratic rule of Suharto, which ended in 1998.

A vigorous press has emerged since then. But media watchdog groups criticise an increasing number of lawsuits by public officials and others for alleged defamation.