Abdurrahman to sue two dailies

Abdurrahman to sue two dailies

JAKARTA (JP): After threatening to take the nation to the
brink of a state of emergency, President Abdurrahman Wahid on
Sunday expressed his discontent at the press claiming he would
file law suits against two dailies for allegedly spreading lies.

"I will file law suits against two newspapers in the country,
because they have spread lies to the public," Abdurrahman said
during a dialog on the reform movement with university students
on Sunday.

Without identifying the newspapers in question, Abdurrahman
said that he would file a suit against a newspaper that wrote
that he had telephoned Supreme Court Justice Artidjo Alkausar to
take up the position of Attorney General.

Abdurrahman maintained that he had never called Artidjo.

The other newspaper, according to Abdurrahman, had claimed
that the President had broken the law.

"The reform movement has been going on for two years, so from
now on whoever spreads lies will be brought to court,"
Abdurrahman stressed.

The President claimed that he had tried his best to respect
and uphold freedom of expression ever since the beginning of the
reform era as such freedoms were a major factor in boosting the
democratization process.

"Back then I would never have filed a law suit against any
reporters even though they had spread lies about me because I
thought that if I did so, I would be stifling the press and this
would be a return to the repressive era of New Order regime," he
added.

However from now on, he said, he would uphold the law and
demand a legal process to deal with newspapers which allegedly
spread lies about him to the public.

Abdurrahman has repeatedly accused the media of "twisting" his
statements. (dja)