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)