By: E & P Staff All 80 journalists from Serambi, the only daily newspaper based in hard-hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia, are missing and feared dead, according to the Jakarta Post.
The latest stories published on the newspaper's website are from Saturday?s edition.
Along with the newspaper?s other staff members, the missing journalists are among 230 employees based in Banda Aceh and other areas, who work for the Jakarta-based publishing group Gramedia. Gramedia also publishes the country?s largest newspaper, Kompas.
?We fear the worst,? Gramedia public relations chief Agus Parengkuan told the Jakarta Post.
"As the main paper covering Aceh, the journalists have become accustomed to threats, intimidation and violence amid the conflict in the province that began in 1989 when the military started operations to root out the Free Aceh Movement," the Post observed. "Despite those risks, nothing could have prepared them for what is being called the Boxing Day debacle.
The Kompas bureau chief in Aceh checked the homes of many of the missing employees, including that of Najmuddin Umar, who also reports for Kompas. Like the others, ?his house was no longer there? an executive at Kompas said.
The Serambi office and printing press were among the buildings in downtown Banda Aceh that were totally destroyed by the massive 9.0-earthquake and the tsunami that followed in its wake on Sunday.
"Since Sunday," the Post reported., "media companies outside Aceh are also frantically trying to locate their reporters and staff based in the province. Yesterday, some were found to be safe, including The Jakarta Post?s Nani Afrida and Nur Raihan of detik.com. Nani sounded traumatised, while Raihan cited said it was a miracle that she and her family had escaped 'a four-metre wave just behind our car.?'
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