'Tempo' closure is baseless: Witnesses<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government's decision to revoke the
\npublishing license of Tempo weekly was groundless, two former
\neditors of the current affairs magazine said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Putu Setia and Bambang Bujono were testifying during a hearing
\nat the Jakarta State Administrative Court on Tempo's lawsuit
\nagainst Minister of Information Harmoko's decision to revoke the
\nmagazine's license last June.<\/p>\n
"I did not see and was not aware of any statement explicitly
\ndescribing the reasons for the revocation of our magazine," Putu
\nsaid responding to a question from Judge Benjamin Mangkoedilaga.<\/p>\n
"The ministerial decree did not specifically state which
\nstories were deemed offensive," Bambang said.<\/p>\n
Tempo lost its publishing license, which virtually meant its
\nclosure, in June last year. The Ministry of Information said the
\nmagazine's proprietor repeatedly ignored warnings from the
\ngovernment about its editorial content.<\/p>\n
Now Harmoko is facing four separate lawsuits from former Tempo
\neditors, employees and even readers. Two suits were filed at the
\nadministrative court and two others at a district court. All
\ncontested the legality of the minister's decision to revoke the
\nlicenses.<\/p>\n
Tempo's former employees have parted ways. A group of them
\nhave gone on to publish a new magazine called Gatra with
\nfinancing from timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan.<\/p>\n
Bambang said that as managing editor, he never received any
\nwritten warnings, nor was he informed of any warnings from the
\ngovernment before the day of the revocation.<\/p>\n
And as a member of the editorial board, he said he was not
\naware of any meeting by the Press Council regarding the
\nrevocation of the publishing license.<\/p>\n
Putu said the revocation came as a shock to the magazine's
\neditors. "The minister should have issued a first warning and
\nthen followed that with a stern warning before closing the
\nmagazine," he said.<\/p>\n
As a matter of policy, Tempo had always followed the
\nregulations and directions set out by the government regarding
\nnews stories. "We discontinued publishing articles which were
\ndeemed sensitive," he said.<\/p>\n
As an example, he cited the time when Tempo ran a story about
\na Hindu sect in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. He said Tempo
\nnever received any copy of the record the government reportedly
\nwrites up for every press publication.<\/p>\n
This report, along with various other documents, have been
\npresented by Harmoko's lawyers in his defense.<\/p>\n
Putu also underlined that in the absence of any clear
\ncensorship guidelines, editors could not know for sure which
\nstories could be published and which ones could not. (imn)<\/p>",
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