Verdict on 'Tempo' and a lesson from it<\/p>\n
Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Thursday's court verdict on Tempo magazine, which has been in
\na long and costly legal battle with businessman Tomy Winata, will
\nset the tone and direction of the development of the magazine and
\nthe Indonesian press in the future.<\/p>\n
For the respected weekly, which is regarded as the Indonesian
\nequivalent of U.S.-based Time magazine for its excellent
\ninvestigative reporting, the verdict is important as it will have
\na great impact on the survival of Tempo and other publications
\nthat operate within the second largest media group in the country
\nafter the Kompas group. Over the last two years of trials, which
\nalso involved the magazine's sister paper, the Koran Tempo daily,
\nthe legal costs have drained the coffers of the group as well as
\nthe energy of their top decision-makers.<\/p>\n
Tempo, which was closed down by Soeharto in 1994 for
\npublishing reports critical of his government's policies, has a
\nlong love and hate relationship with officialdom. In the various
\ncivil and criminal trials related to Tomy's allegations, it has
\nlost four of seven cases so far and has been ordered to pay the
\nwell-connected businessman more than US$1.5 million in damages
\nover other reports. Those cases are still pending appeal.<\/p>\n
In this week's verdict, the magazine faces criminal charges by
\ngovernment prosecutors for defaming the private citizen and
\nbusinessman in a March 2003 article. That article, according to
\nthe government, allegedly insinuated that Tomy, who has no
\nofficial position in the government, may have been involved in
\nthe massive fire at a Jakarta textile market in hopes of securing
\na government contract for the rebuilding work. Media experts have
\nsaid that Tempo's reports on the matter were fair and balanced.<\/p>\n
The verdict, which is scheduled to be delivered by the court
\non Sept. 16, will have ramifications far beyond Tempo's newsroom.
\nIt could adversely impact our hard-won press freedom,
\nspecifically, and in a broader sense, Indonesian democracy, if
\nthe court declares Tempo guilty of criminal defamation.<\/p>\n
The already hostile public, especially politically well-
\nconnected figures, will be more encouraged to settle problems
\nwith the media using the colonial-era criminal laws, instead of
\nusing the modern 1999 Press Law, which calls for mechanisms like
\nthe right of reply, correction and clarification to settle many
\ndisputes.<\/p>\n
But more damaging is that a guilty verdict will discourage the
\nmedia from carrying out their journalistic mission, and will
\nrelegate it to being impotent like it was during the 32-year
\nSoeharto era. Thus the nascent democracy, which has flourished
\nover the past six years, will suffer, if not disappear. Soeharto
\nimposed strict controls on the media and exploited it for the
\nmaintenance of his authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n
Leo S. Batubara, a member of the Press Council, said the Tempo
\ntrials were important because they were not an isolated case, but
\npart of a troubling trend over the past three years targeting the
\nmedia. Marimutu Sinivasan, the owner of an ailing business group,
\nalso sued Kompas daily for US$1 million, for defamation, but the
\ncase was settled out of court.<\/p>\n
The other big cases pitting prominent figures against the
\nmedia that have landed in the courts, included Tempo vs.
\nSinivasan, Tempo vs. Tomy, Koran Tempo vs. Tomy, Rakyat Merdeka
\nvs. President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Rakyat Merdeka vs.
\nSpeaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung.<\/p>\n
Megawati successfully sued Rakyat Merdeka on charges of
\ndefamation for running headlines and cartoons ridiculing her, a
\ncommon journalistic practice in mature democracies like the U.S.
\nor England. Rakyat Merdeka's editor received a six-month
\nsuspended prison sentence in the case involving Megawati, but he
\nremains free pending an appeal.<\/p>\n
Critics blamed the travails affecting the media on the corrupt
\njudiciary, which continues to use the criminal law inherited from
\nthe pre-1945 version of the Dutch colonial laws to try cases
\ninvolving the media instead of the 1999 Press Law. The new law
\nstipulates that a court trial should be a last resort.<\/p>\n
A study done by U.S. and European academics in Eastern
\nEuropean countries in 1991, which were just two years removed
\nfrom strict totalitarianism, showed that problems encountered by
\nthe press in the former Soviet bloc were extensive.<\/p>\n
The study concluded that the expansion of press freedom in
\nthose countries took place during a period of a real transition,
\nwhere old laws had lost their legitimacy. The erstwhile
\nregulating agencies had been deprived of their power or dissolved
\nwhile new ones had not yet been promulgated or established to
\ntake their place. In the transitional period, where the press
\noperated without clear laws and regulations, real news gave way
\nto yellow journalism and sensationalism.<\/p>\n
Patrick H.O. Neil, a leading expert who authored the report
\nfrom that study, blamed the problems in East Europe on an
\ninability on the part of the societies concerned -- the public,
\nthe politicians and the journalistic profession -- to assimilate
\nthe newly gained freedom and to use it in ways that sustained the
\nestablishment of democratic politics.<\/p>\n
The attitude of the Indonesian elite was similar in that they
\nwere less than thrilled by the new press freedom. If upset by
\npress reports, certain parties initially organized mobs to attack
\njournalists and media offices, but lately they have used the
\nlegal system to hurt the media via whopping lawsuits. The aim is
\nto punish the media, not so much to defend their name and honor.<\/p>\n
In the face of the new threat, publishers and executives have
\nbecome the defendants, and most of the complainants have hired
\nprominent lawyers, and have been able to back up their cases and
\nprove that some of the media reports were inaccurate, biased or
\nlibelous. They also failed to respect the privacy of the news
\nsources. The mass media, who some say has gotten out of control
\nand chaotic since the beginning of the reform era, has made some
\nblunders due to poor standards in the newsrooms and a lack of
\nprofessionalism attributed to poor education and training of the
\njournalists and managers.<\/p>\n
Drawing a lesson from the press in the Eastern European
\ncountries, the Indonesian media has no option but to improve its
\nstandards in the newsrooms, while journalists must be ready to
\ntake a risk even if this means jail if they believe they are
\nright. Some American journalists, for example, stood by the
\nsacred journalistic code and chose serve out prison terms for
\ncontempt of court rather than unveiling their sources in court.<\/p>\n
The Tempo case is a litmus test for free press and we cannot
\nafford inaction. The journalistic profession, the politicians,
\nthe government and the judiciary, must sit down together to find
\nsolutions acceptable to all parties in order to save the media
\nand more importantly democracy.<\/p>\n
The author is a staff writer for the Jakarta Post and can be
\ncontacted at ajambak@berkeley.edu<\/p>",
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