Banjir Ambarita – Two journalists in Manokwari, West Papua, reported the district attorney to the police on Friday for sending them death threats by text message, a charge the accused denies.

In a bizarre twist, however, district attorney Paryono later urged other reporters not to cover the case.

The issue stems from text messages received on Thursday night by Roy Sibarani, a reporter for the Papua Barat Pos newspaper, and Budi Setiawan, a contributor for Jakarta-based Trans TV.

The message, which purports to come from Paryono, warned the two journalists to stop reporting on the district attorney, who was last week demoted and received a pay cut for undisclosed infractions.

The message, which used offensive language, said they had "gone too far" in reporting on the demotion, adding: "Whether I'm demoted or not is my business. I'm still the Manokwari district attorney. I have no qualms about killing you," the message also said.

Roy said he received a call from the same number on Friday morning but did not answer. Shortly after, he received another profanity-laced message. He and Budi filed a report with the police later in the day.

Paryono, however, said he did not send the message and would file his own report with the police against the person that did. "I've only got one number and all the reporters know what it is," he said.

"This is a case of someone trying to cause friction between myself and the journalists. I know I've had my issues with you on your coverage [of the demotion], but I'm not that stupid to issue death threats."

However, shortly after Roy and Budi filed their report, Paryono contacted two other reporters to ask them not to cover the death threat case.

"The district attorney told me he didn't want the case to get national coverage," said Anis da Santos, a reporter with Jakarta-based TV One. The other reporter was Metro TV's Muin.