Reporters' libel case adjourned<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers representing seven dismissed Suara
\nPembaruan journalists were granted more time yesterday to prepare
\ntheir reply to the daily's management.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge Willyarto adjourned the session at the East
\nJakarta District Court until next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The journalists' lawyer, Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin of the Amir
\nSyamsuddin and Partners Law Office, told The Jakarta Post that
\nhis team needs more time to respond to the newspaper's claim that
\ntheir case is \"obscure\".<\/p>\n
On March 26, John Kusnadi and REM Pattikawa, representing PT
\nMedia Interaksi Utama -- the newspaper's publisher -- called the
\nsuit filed by Petron Curie Nadeak and six other journalists an
\nobscure case of libel.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, originally filed by the seven journalists in
\nFebruary, accused the newspaper's general manager and publisher
\nof defaming their names by removing their names from the daily's
\nmasthead.<\/p>\n
The journalists, who have worked for the newspaper for between
\nseven and 18 years, blamed General Manager Albert Hasibuan and PT
\nMedia Interaksi Mandiri for libeling them. The seven said that
\nthey are still working for the paper but that their names have
\nnot been on the masthead since Jan. 2 and they have not been paid
\nfor months.<\/p>\n
Petron, who was called on to testify in court next Wednesday,
\nthen referred to two recent letters from the Indonesian
\nJournalists Association and Golkar's faction in the House of
\nRepresentatives, both of whom asked the daily's management to pay
\nthe journalists their salaries while the trial is going on.<\/p>\n
Petron told The Post that the Indonesian Journalists
\nAssociation and the Ministry of Information, at the behest of the
\njournalists, advised the daily's management to settle the problem
\nout of court. However, the newspaper refused, even after the
\njournalists appealed to the Central Committee for Resolving Labor
\nDisputes<\/p>\n
Separately, Albert Hasibuan and the daily's publisher have
\nfiled a suit with the Jakarta State Administrative Court against
\nthe Ministry of Manpower, which, through its Local Committee for
\nResolving Labor Disputes, turned down the publisher's request to
\ndismiss the journalists. (26)<\/p>",
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