After the 'Tempo' verdict

After the 'Tempo' verdict

The efforts by Goenawan Mohamad to resurrect Tempo have
failed. The Supreme Court, in a hearing presided over by Chief
Justice Soerjono Thursday, rejected charges made by Goenawan
Mohamad over revocation of the magazine's publishing license (by
Minister of Information Harmoko). In its verdict the Supreme
Court overturned the previous decisions of the Jakarta
Administrative Court and the Jakarta Administrative High Court,
both of which ruled in Goenawan's favor.

The question now is: to what degree did the political nuances
inherent in this case influence the legal process? Frankly, this
is not an easy question to answer. The Supreme Court rejected the
legal arguments made by the administrative court and the
administrative high court. This, under the existing judicial
hierarchy and under the formal principles of legality, is indeed
possible.

However, aside from this formal logic of legality, another and
no less important consideration exist -- one which concerns our
sense of justice. In the wake of this case, and previous cases as
well, people ask: Why must the penalty for an editorial "error"
be borne by so many people due to the closure of the publication?
Why not simply take the responsible editor to court?

It is from such cases that we feel that there is still no
concord between our sense of justice and our formal legal
reasoning. We hope, therefore, that after this precedent...the
government will sit down with our legal experts and community
representatives and talk about the problem.

-- Republika, Jakarta