The Journalist Safety Committee has said that the murders of Maratua Siregar and Maraden Sianipar in Labuhan Batu, North Sumatra, suspected to be related to palm oil, did not constitute violence against journalists because neither of the victims were journalists at that time.

Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Medan head and committee member Liston Damanik said that based on interviews with the victims' families and colleagues, Maraden was an entrepreneur and Maratua worked for him. Maratua had also been active in civil society organizations after leaving local weekly newspaper Pindo Merdeka.