73 journalists sign petition for fired colleagues

73 journalists sign petition for fired colleagues

JAKARTA (JP): More than 70 journalists have signed a petition
expressing concern at the fate of seven Suara Pembaruan
journalists who have gone 20 months without pay because of their
dispute with management.

"Those (seven) journalists have had to endure an extremely
hard life these past 20 months. Some of them have wives and
children to support," according to the petition, which by
Saturday afternoon had gathered 73 signatures from all branches
of the Indonesian media.

"It is tantamount to killing them slowly if we just let this
situation continue," according to the statement, which was
circulated during the weekend.

The petition called on PT. Media Interaksi Utama, the company
managing Suara Pembaruan, a Jakarta evening daily, to be humane
in dealing with the seven journalists.

The paper has tried to dismiss the journalists since November
1994 on grounds of indiscipline but the move was rejected by the
Central Committee for Settling Labor Disputes (P4P).

The P4P, a tripartite body involving the Ministry of Manpower,
in an April 1995 ruling, also ordered the newspaper to reinstate
the seven journalists -- Petron Curie, Kooswadi, Isaac Sinjal,
Constantinus De Gani, Djadjan Saputra, Charles Manurung, and
Nelson Simanjuntak -- and to pay their back salaries in full.

Suara Pembaruan has since appealed to the Jakarta State
Administrative High Court and a ruling is expected on Sept. 14.

The petitioners said the newspaper should abide by the P4P
ruling, pending the outcome of the high court ruling.

Similar appeals from the Golkar faction in the House of
Representatives and the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian
Journalists Association (PWI) to the newspaper in June have been
ignored.

In the petition, the journalists called for the intervention
of the Golkar faction and the PWI to help end the anguish of the
seven journalists and their families. (26)