JAKARTA, Oct. 16 -- In March 2025, a cardboard box holding a severed pig's head arrived at the Jakarta office of Tempo, the Indonesian investigative magazine. Three days later, cleaners found a package of six headless rats. Wahyu Dhyatmika, who leads Tempo's digital operation, called it a terror attack meant to "scare and silence" the newsroom, the International Federation of Journalists said at the time.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the global civil society alliance CIVICUS cited those episodes in an appeal to President Prabowo Subianto, issued ahead of the second anniversary of his inauguration on October 20.

Their argument is that the pressure does not come only from anonymous senders. The two groups say Prab...