Activists play waiting game ahead of 'Tempo' verdict

Activists play waiting game ahead of 'Tempo' verdict

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three days before the Central Jakarta District Court hands down
its verdict on a case against Tempo chief editor Bambang
Harymurti, who is on trial for defamation against businessman
Tomy Winata, activists are scrambling to their feet in an attempt
to rescue the country's press freedom.

On Friday, activists grouped under the Committee Against Press
Criminalization (KAKaP) held a rally at the court in support of
Bambang.

The group of 15 representatives of various non-governmental
organizations (NGO), student groups and worker unions -- among
them Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) chairwoman Wardah Hafidz and
noted NGO figure Wiladi Budiarta -- asked the court to drop all
criminal charges against Bambang.

KAKaP coordinator Akuat Supriyanto said that if Bambang was
convicted as charged, the press would be sent back to the
repressive era under Sukarno, who had imprisoned some prominent
journalists during his "guided democracy" policy in the 1950s,
and Soeharto, who sent even more journalists to jail during his
32-year authoritarian rule.

"Such an unfavorable verdict would surely be the end of
democracy, as the public would lose any source of information
that is critical and acts as a social control," he said.
"Journalists would also be afraid to provide information to the
public."

Pressure from the activists has been mounting since Bambang,
along with Tempo journalists Ahmad Taufik and Teuku Iskandar Ali,
was charged with defaming Tomy and provoking public unrest
through an article titled 'Is Tomy in Tenabang?'. The article was
run by the weekly in its Mar. 3 to Mar. 9, 2003, edition.

The prosecution has demanded that the defendants be sentenced
to two years in prison each, with an additional request that
Bambang be immediately arrested following the verdict.

Earlier on Wednesday, 12 prominent activists -- including law
expert Nono Anwar Makarim, political observer Indra J. Piliang,
and socio-religious expert Ulil Abshar-Abdhalla -- had also
signed a petition declaring that the prosecution of the Tempo
journalists was a threat to press freedom as one of the country's
pillars of democracy.

Akuat said the criminal prosecution of journalists should not
happen in a democratic country. "Indonesia, which claims to be
more democratic by directly electing its president, should follow
suit by following the global trend of not prosecuting journalists
under criminal laws."

At least 14 defamation cases have reached the courts in the
past year, every one of them heard using the Criminal Code,
sidelining the 1999 Press Law.

Two of them involved the editors of Rakyat Merdeka daily, who
lost their cases to President Megawati Soekarnoputri and House
Speaker Akbar Tandjung respectively. Tempo previously lost a
separate lawsuit filed by Tomy and had been ordered to pay
damages amounting to US$1 million.